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Blue people!

I liked it. Screw y'all

Sex and the City 2

Eff picturez!

This movie sucked. Sarah Jessica Parker got her mole removed. What up with that?

They go to the middle east. Spend extravagantly. Have sex on the beach. Get arrested. Kiss former lovers. Get in trouble with the law. Lose all their money. And go home. Seriously. They have butlers. And they make fun of the middle east dress. What up with that. But then the middle eastern dressed women save them!

Hoorah!

Awful movie!

Breaking Bad 2

!

So I forgot to post. Then I got dragged around on the floor. Hurumph. What a new year.

Steve says I haven't watched Back to the Future 3. Fuck that!

Anywho, GREAT SHOW!!!!!!!!!

Seriously great. Pink teddy bear freaked me out. What the hell happened with it? You'll find out. When the season ends! It's a cliffhanger. Fo' realz.

I highly recommend this show. It's a doozy.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Thirty-nine minutes to midnight and counting...

Last post of the year and here's what I have to say. It's great. In complete contrast to what I had to say about Halo: Reach, this game strives where the other fails. Excellent gameplay. Exciting story. This game does one thing and does it well: throws you right in the middle of action movie. I'm not going to say it's anything original. That it is not just trying to capitalize on the same perks as the previous games - action and violence. It just pumps up the volume every time without changing it's attitude, claiming to be more than it is. I believe Halo could have been successful if it wasn't for that melodramatic, self-indulgent storyline that bored the shit out of me resulting in a loss of attention and a complete...

Stan! Let go of Marissa that looks like it hur... Not the "BOSTON CRAB"!!!

Wait, ok. Back to the game. C.O.D.B.P. (ha, just made it up - MY INVENTION!) just allows you to loose yourself in a testosterone-fulled, adrenaline-laced thrill ride. You spend 9 hours blowing Commi's up, what's not to love? It's just...

STAN! Put your damn pants on! Dear christ...

That's it I can't say anymore. I'll just leave you all to ponder this:

Or this...

Awesome.

Easy A

Being one of the few things she asked for for Christmas, I bought this movie so that Jill could watch it. She had hyped this movie up so thoroughly that I was forced to experience it with her due to curiosity. Also I am a sucker for bad teenage dramas.

This movie is yet another in a growing series of epic masterpieces to be remade into a modern teeny bopper movie. This movie joins the likes of Ten things I hate about you (the taming of the shrew), shes the man (twelfth night), out cold (Casablanca), yet this time the tale is based upon the Scarlet Letter. The main character in this story is relegated to Hester Prynne except in this case the harlot's reputation is based entirely upon her own lies. Emma Stone pretends to sleep with a, constantly abused and bullied, gay classmate so that he can pretend to be straight until he can manage to escape their small town. When the ruse works for him she is asked by one guy after another to do the same thing so that their reputations can be altered. This series of lies and deceptions snowballs until the inevitable collapse and the protagonists eventual "Why did this all happen" moment.

I know its a teeny bopper movie and they are by definition trite repeats of the same boring story line, but I wasn't surprised at a single moment in this movie. If it weren't for Amanda Bynes role as a Christian super freak who hounds the main character for the entire movie this film would have no redeeming qualities. Am I sad that I watched it? No. Will I probably watch it again. Most likely. Will I continue to use redundant questions in my posts? That is yet to be seen.

Cat's Cradle

Nine months ago I read my first Vonnegut novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, which most people consider to be his magnum opus. I asked for and received a number of Vonnegut's other novels this Christmas, and today I have finished one of his other most famous works in Cat's Cradle. I'll be honest; for the majority of the book, I was pretty nonplussed. There was wit and humor interspersed throughout the first 200 pages or so, but I was growing more and more frustrated every few chapters by the lack of a coherent or cohesive plot. I had a hunch about where everything was ultimately headed (and I was right), but Vonnegut really teased the finale by alluding and foreshadowing several times throughout the otherwise seemingly pointless narrative. Now, when the climax of the book did happen, predictable or not, the whole thing really came into its own and managed to make what I assume will be a lasting impact on me. So even though I saw a certain climactic event coming long before it did, I'm very pleased with Vonnegut's execution of said event. I guess I just wish there was a bit more to take away from the first 90% of the story. Fortunately, because it ended on such a high note, I still enjoyed Cat's Cradle a great deal and will be able to nod approvingly if anyone ever brings it up in conversation from here on out. And it's not as if the book was a total bore until then, either. Perhaps I just had unjustly high expectations thanks to Slaughterhouse-Five, which read like a masterpiece from beginning to end. I've got plenty more Vonnegut to read, and I still expect to enjoy all of it. But so far I'd definitely say that it seems like Slaughterhouse-Five was to Vonnegut what Catch-22 was to Heller. But yeah, still, Cat's Cradle was a pretty good book.

Party Down: Season 2

Do you know how many viewers the second season of Party Down averaged? Something like 120,000. Even for a third-tier premium cable channel like Starz, that's an absurdly small amount. That's a 0.0 in the Nielsen ratings. Quite literally, no show could possibly do worse. The season finale drew 74,000 viewers. You could have taken every single person who tuned into the finale and put them in Cowboys Stadium and still had an additional 6,000 empty seats. So this show's inevitable cancelation was hardly surprising. But it was still a shame, because Party Down is (or was, I guess) pretty damn funny. I didn't love it quite as much as many critics did; this cancellation isn't the travesty that Arrested Development's was, largely because this show isn't Arrested Development. I'd rank it somewhere just outside of the top five comedies I saw in 2010. I'm sure I gave a synopsis back when I watched Season 1 last summer, so I won't go into a lengthy explanation about it. Just know that this season was a little bit better than the first one and that Jane Lynch has been replaced by Megan Mullally, and that character exchange was neither an improvement nor a disappointment. And there you have it.

We ♥ Katamari

Nine or ten months ago I beat Katamari Damacy and enjoyed the brief and silly game a lot. Roll shit into balls, rinse, and repeat. Apparently I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it because the tongue-in-cheek plot of this sequel revolves around the whole world loving Katamari Damacy and demanding to be able to roll more shit into balls. The King (who serves as a narrator of sorts) breaks the fourth wall even further at some points and directly asks the player, "Seriously, what's so fun about this? You're just rolling things into balls over and over again." Clearly, the team behind the Katamari games was shocked that people actually liked them as much as they did. I've got one more Katamari game backlogged and my girlfriend has another, so this is far from the last time we'll see these games in the Back-Blogged archives. But this game is finished, for I have rolled up even the sun. And doing so prompted the ending credits. Awesome. Where does the series go from here? I'll find out eventually. But not yet. Not yet.

Raging Bull

Boxing Day continues! This Scorsese flick is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It was a biopic about Jake LaMotta, a middleweight champion with an interesting and somewhat violent personality outside the ring. DeNiro was wonderful here as LaMotta and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a better performance from the Oscar-winning actor. In terms of content and story, this movie really wasn't all that special or unique. A young and feisty boxer rises through the ranks while battling demons at home, wins some big fights in the ring, loses some big ones at home (marital woes, estranged siblings, etc.), and ultimately ends up a broken and battered old man with plenty of regrets. But there was definitely something special about the overall production here. The performances, the score, the ebb and flow of the film itself. I'd definitely stop short of calling it one of the greatest movies of all time, but at least I can see the case for such praise. I'm finally all done with the boxing movies in my backlog after seeing this one, Million Dollar Baby, and five of the six Rocky movies in the past four months or so, but who knows how many more I'll add before all is said and done? The Fighter is supposed to be pretty damn good and FX even has a boxing TV series coming up soon. But this'll be the last boxing movie for Boxing Day, 2010. Now I'm off to my girlfriend's house where I will have to continue this annual celebration of boxing by getting into a fist fight with her dog, a boxer.

Rocky Balboa

Happy December 26th, everyone! Or, as the Canadians, Aussies, and Brits would say, happy Boxing Day! Ha! Get it? Boxing Day? Rocky Balboa? (If you're groaning or wincing right now, I can't blame you, but I'll take any gimmicky excuse to watch a movie at this point; Christmas has massacred my backlog and I've got a lot of work to do if I have any chance of netting any progress on the year in my movie count.) If you pay attention to this blog with regularity, you'll recall that I watched the second, third, fourth, and fifth Rocky movies in a three-day span last September. The devolution and degradation of the franchise were slow and steady but very total; between '80s robots and over-the-top anti-Sovietism and, well, Rocky V, the series ended on a note that must have been an utter embarrassment to its Oscar-winning roots. At least, that's the way the situation stood for sixteen years. And then Rocky Balboa came along and saved the franchise's legacy. The Rocky we see here today has endured several key changes in his life and returned to simpler means in an unassuming Philadelphia home. He runs a restaurant. He's still a proud man, but he knows his glory days are far behind him, and he almost seems happier that way. - at least until he decides to go for broke and compete in one last boxing match. I give Stallone all kinds of credit for this one. No one at all was calling for a continuation of the Rocky franchise in 2006, and during its production the project was an easy target for ridicule and lampooning. But he wrote and directed a pretty good movie all the same. And the guy also got ripped all over again - at sixty years of age, no less - and put on a great performance to boot. I enjoyed this movie and the good news is that you don't even need to see any of the first five flicks to appreciate this one just fine.

Halo: Reach

I know, it’s been forever. I told myself at the beginning of December, “Trevor, this is the month. Regardless of how busy you think you are, we’re getting shit done! End of story.”

Hardly.

Joining the mainstream here, I have recently completed Halo: Reach. Having only beaten two of the previous (following?) four games, Halo and Halo 3, I won’t praise myself as a Halo expert, but I didn’t understand lick of what was going on in this game. Ok, prior knowledge of this epic tells me of the war between the Covenant and humans as they race across the galaxy to activate the Halo rings, which are in turn suppose to be a weapon used to destroy the Flood - those damn pesky parasite-creatures that can apparently wipe out the whole world if not properly contained. So after playing most of the trilogy I think I’ve got a fair grasp on this storyline, but Bungie and Microsoft can’t leave well-enough alone. Not when there’s money to be made.

Let’s rewind the clock. Before the discovery of Halo. Before Master Chief is awoken. A simpler time. We enter Reach.

What is Reach? I have no fucking clue. Once again, regardless of what I knew from the trilogy, none of this seemed to apply. The only thing I’m sure of is that the human’s are losing this war against the Covenant... and the Spartans’ suits looked a lot cooler in the past. But wait, why is there a war against the Covenants? I find myself pondering. Who knows? Once again, no idea of what’s going on.

Now, I realize there are answers to these questions. That there is a coherent storyline that - I’m sure - many people were able to follow, easily. But I guess my lack of understanding doesn’t strain from a convoluted plot, it’s from a boring plot. I could barely keep my attention through half of the cut scenes in the game. Oh, we’re getting chase from point A to point B again? Oh, we have to destroy this _________ to make another stand against the Covenant? This is all new and refreshing. How innovated, I can’t imaging my brain wandering away from these captivating dilemmas that all mirror each other.

The Halo franchise is a great FPS, and I have just as much fun with it as the next guy, but do you have to beat the story to death. What was wrong with the trilogy? The story was over, wasn’t it? Did we have to reopen it again for just another few million dollars?

Oh, wait. I see your point.

Ok, well... if there’s anything else I have to say about the game is that the ending sucked. I can’t say anything for Halo II, but the first and third games all have incredible endings where you drove out on your Warthog as disaster nipped at your exhaust pipe. It was awesome, both times. However, the ending with this guy was pretty anti-climatic. Jumped into a big gun and shot down shit. Wasn’t even that hard and it was over in the blink of an eye. You’d figure if the makers were going to recycle the same damn game again, they would at least make sure to include the best part. Guess not. Eh, lame.

Well, at least Bungie claimed - while the credit scene begins to roll - that this is the end to the franchise. I don’t know that I necessarily believe them, but I am somewhat relieve. Let’s see something new. I know you guys can do it... I think? At least think of it like this: You’ve done your big blockbuster and made heaping globs of cash. Now it’s time to do something risky, avant-garde. Sure, you may fall flat on your face and disgrace yourself totally, but at least you’ll be making a stab at trying to bring something new and fresh into the world - something that and can captivate audiences as they bare witness to your stunning creation.

And if all else fails, I’m sure a prequel to the prequel is long overdue.

Young Frankenstein

Unable to sleep due to a horrible bout of indigestion, I decided to log another movie late last night. This time I turned to the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Young Frankenstein. This is the fifth or sixth Mel Brooks movie I've seen, and his works have ranged from memorably excellent (Blazing Saddles) to frustratingly subpar (Robin Hood: Men in Tights). I'm happy to say that this was one of Mel's better movies, not just in my opinion but in the general consensus opinion as well, it seems. Filmed entirely in black and white, it very accurately parodies the old Frankenstein movies both stylistically and thematically. I need to give recognition specifically to Gene Wilder, who impresses me more and more each time I see him in a movie role. With all the (deserved) attention being given to the late Leslie Nielsen for his deadpan performances during silly and outlandish circumstances, I want to at least point out that Gene Wilder is a similarly talented buffoon. The rest of this cast was pitch-perfect as well and the whole movie really did seem like an enjoyable experience for Wilder and Brooks, who claimed that this was his personal favorite of all his movies. My favorite is still Blazing Saddles, but this one is right up there too. If you tend to like Mel Brooks flicks, this one seems like one of the better ones. Enjoy!

X-Men Arcade

The year was 1992 and I was five. So neither did I play or remember when this game came out. But as I grew older and Fox Kids started airing X-Men the Animated Series, did I notice Nightcrawler and Colossus on the side of arcade cabinets. Then my quarters disappeared.

This Xbox Live and PSN game made by Konami was polished and released by Backbone Entertainment. It is the same game you'll fine in the dusty corner of any forgotten arcade, but made for the stay at home gamer; which helps and hinders the game play. First of all, if you want to beat the arcade game, you're going to need more than $20 and at least five friends. Both were hard to come by at a young age. So this download game is $10 and has multiplayer online so every one can enjoy the full game. Choice given are difficulty, four or six player and which style you want to play. The styles are USA and Japanese. After playing the Japanese game, I realize that American arcades really were just a place to loose money.

In the American X-Men arcade game you had 3 lives, a ten hit health bar and two orbs which represented uses of your super powers. If you use your super powers, you lose life until you're down to your last hit. Then you start using the orbs. So if you even want any help fighting the Blob or the White Queen, just do it like a normal person with punches and kicks. You're just throwing your life away using super powers apparently.

In the Japanese version, which for some reason still is all in English, with just a smattering of Japanese subtitles, the game is much more designed for playing at home on a console. You still have the same health bar and orbs, except you use the orbs first and then you start tapping into your life force for your powers (which isn't canon, but nothing from this game really is.) This means you can at least blow up everything on screen then get your punches in afterwards. The single best reason to play the Japanese version is that it has drop items! Something that would save too many quarters in America, you can pick up extra health and extra orbs for powers. This version makes playing the whole game a much more enjoyable experience.

Now playing and beating the game isn't hard. You don't rack up points, you rack up continues. So if you do well, you can keep on going after you die. But its not like you get 2 or 3 continues each level. No, you get about 100 each time you punch the air. So the game loses any kind of challenge right away. Can't fight Nimrod? Then just die one thousand times and maybe you can finally get a punch in. Even in Expert mode, where you need those 100 lives to get past the first level, no one has to use any kind of strategy. Just power spam until your life is used up, then die and get them all back. It is really the only depressing part of the game, that there isn't anything stopping you from beating this once epic monster of challenge in less than 25 mins. (Which is a trophy.) The only incentive really is to beat it fast with little death to end up on the online leaderboards.

The real treasure is that is a great port from the arcade, includes wonder mutants which any X-Men fan enjoys, yes even Dazzler, so any one a fan of beat-em-ups, X-Men or only spending $10 on the arcade game ever again, this is a fun download that can be beaten a few times with friends.

The Great Outdoors

Color me unimpressed! A while back I watched (and posted about) Uncle Buck, a John Candy movie which I partially remembered from my childhood, and I was greatly disappointed. Sadly, the same applies to The Great Outdoors. This 1988 comedy definitely had a number of notably funny scenes and lines, but ultimately it felt like a very so-so movie. The Dan Aykroyd character just kind of bugged me the entire time. A subplot in which John Candy's teenage son woos a girl felt horribly cheap and lazy, right down to the fact that the same generic musical theme played every time their trite relationship was revisited. There were two red-headed twins that seemed to be there only to look weird and creepy. I'm not saying this movie was awful, but I am saying that it wasn't nearly as good as I seemed to remember it being. But I'm happy enough to be snowplowing through my movie backlog at a rate of a movie per night lately. After all, it's best to bail out as much backlog clutter as possible before the inevitable Christmas flood.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The drought is over. Im posting for the first time in many weeks and I am happy to say it is a very rare post for me, a video game. I realized recently that I have played many of the Zelda games but I have not beaten one of my childhood favorites, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I remember playing it a lot as a child but I never managed to start it and play it all the way through till the end, so that is what I set out to do. I started in the middle of last week and I played the entire first section of the game, the light world, in about two hours. I was very pleased with myself and perhaps I forgot the length of the game but I went on to brag to several fellow posters about the fact that I had beat "half" the game. I was sorely mistaken in this statement, as I had completed in reality less than a quarter. Embarrassed and re-energized by my mistake I set out to complete the game in a timely but thorough fashion. I am proud to announce that I completed the game in less than a week and when I say completed I mean COMPLETED. I got every item, including all four bottles, the care of byrna, the magic cape and even all three magic coins.

The game play was much as I remembered as a child. The game, initially on SNES, has been, as I believe Sweeney has recently stated, "dated." The graphics were probably top of the line in its heyday but absolutely nothing to write home about today. I played a downloaded version on the wii and I felt that the game continually lagged and sometimes completely froze for a couple seconds. This did not hinder my game experience but it lead me to ask myself whether it was the downloaded version of the game that caused this problem or if the SNES version suffered from the same problem. I will add this to my list of questions I will probably never go far enough to actually research the answer to.

The game consists of three "temples" in the light world, a desert one, a water one and a woods one. Then it consisted of seven temples in the alternate dark world that the boss Gannon sucks you into after you defeat his alter ego the magician at the end of the light world segment. The first three temples are child's play in comparison to the seven dark world temples. The boss at the end of the first dark world temple took me seven tries and three or four controller throws to complete. After dying for the umpteenth time in the sixth dungeon I threw a temper tantrum, shut off the wii and walked away too cool off. only to realize later that I hadn't saved for quite a while before doing so and I ended up having to replay a good chunk of the game, a good punishment for my childish behavior.

Over all the game was fun and I am glad I played it all the way through. It was a staple of my childhood that I really needed to complete. Playing this game mostly reminded me that I have very little patience for video games and that I have a short temper with a tendency to announce to any innocent bystander that the makers of the game were assholes and that the inanimate bad guys were cheating. I threw a minimum of a dozen hissy fits and alienated most of my family. To them I am sorry, mostly because I have rejuvenated my desire to be a faithful and diligent addition to the back blog and that includes nailing down some other video games I have half played, including another member or two of the Zelda saga.

Hollywoodland

I watched this movie last night while wrapping up a shit ton of Christmas presents. I probably should have waited until I could pay close attention before watching a murder mystery movie like this one, but I mean, I had to watch something last night while wrapping Christmas presents. So be it - better Hollywoodland be the casualty than something more noteworthy like Lawrence of Arabia or Dog Day Afternoon. Because my eyes weren't on the screen for the entirety of the film, and because my brain wasn't processing every single line that my ears heard, I'm afraid to say I didn't appreciate this movie as much as I probably could have. But the good news is that I appreciated it a lot more than one might think I was able to. It was pretty slow-moving and dialogue-based, so I definitely got a feel for the caliber of the acting, writing, and direction. A quick Wikipedia visit has filled in the narrative gaps for me. It'd be totally absurd for me to still "recommend" this movie since, you know, I couldn't even bring myself to give 100% of my attention to it. But I will say that from what I saw and heard and followed, I did enjoy this movie and I bet the average movie fan would too. And really, that's as much as I can say.

Where the Wild Things Are

In an homage to the original book that served as the basis for this movie, I will make this post nine sentences long. No, seriously, they made a 101-minute movie out of a nine-sentence kids' book. Spike Jonze is one of my favorite directors and the minute I heard that he was attached to this film adaptation, and that Dave Eggers was the writer, I knew it was one that I wanted to see. The most important distinction to make about the movie, as expressed by Jonze himself, is that this is not a movie "for children," but rather a movie "about childhood." I thought the character design for the Wild Things was utterly fantastic and I also loved the portrayal of Max as a lonely and fantastically imaginative rascal who acts out of line at home only out of a desperation for attention. The Wild Things - who are never explicitly implied to be extensions of Max's imagination - personified a lot of the emotions, thoughts, and fears that Max had. Jonze and Eggers were very effective in exposing and exploring childhood themes such as innocence, confusion, and frustration. A criticism I have is that the flow of the story was a bit abrupt and jagged at times, but I suppose that since most of it took place in Max's wild imagination, that only makes sense. All in all, I think this is a great expansion of the world and story first told and illustrated by Maurice Sendak way back in 1963.

Halo: Reach

The last Halo effort coming from Bungie before they move on to other things, Halo Reach is a prequel that according to most reviews righted all the wrongs of the maligned ODST. I thought ODST was decent if not overpriced, so I went into Reach with high hopes. And to be honest, they weren't really met (in the campaign only!). Reach tells the story of some major sacrafice that allowed Master Chief to do what he did in the first three games, something really brave and noble. The thing is, the game couldn't keep me interested long enough to actually know what that sacrafice was. The game's fantastic from a technical standpoint- it looks amazing, excellent voice talent, and probably my favorite music of the entire series. The shooting gameplay is as great as ever. But when it came to running through the actual missions, it just seemed like more of the same. "Run to point A! Kill everyone there until we tell you to move on! Now shoot this random thing til it explodes! Run away!" Nothing I felt like I hadn't done before. Aside from a surprise mission half-way through that introduces a fun new vehicle, only the graphics made it feel like anything new. However, that's not to say this is a bad game. A mediocre campaign to me was saved by the best online multi-player yet. I've only played it a few times at Stan's house, but the introduction of upgrades like sprint, jetpack, and my personal favorite hologram, all add a fresh new twist to the same great gameplay Halo's had all this time. And honestly, online play is what most people are going to buy this game for anyway. So yeah, single-player didn't do much for me, but don't let that scare you off.

The Simpsons Movie

Has it really been three and a half years since this movie came out? Where has the time gone? Actually, The Simpsons first aired three days shy of twenty-one years ago; the movie "only" took place one sixth of the show's lifetime ago, and perhaps that's why it feels so recent to me. Now, most shows that I watch with regularity are shows I own on DVD. And thus if I watch a series regularly, I'm more likely than not to have seen every episode. But I'm terrified of owning every season of The Simpsons on DVD. Absolutely petrified. Can you blame me? They're on their twenty-third season and only fourteen of them have come out on DVD (and one of those is Season 20 - go figure). Maybe someday. Anyway, my point is that I haven't seen all 473 episodes of The Simpsons. I probably haven't even seen half of them. Hell, 150 sounds like a stretch. And yet, I've watched it on and off - both new episodes and reruns - for something like fifteen years. I'm by no means a hardcore fan, but I'm certainly a long-time fan. So I was just as skeptical as anyone that The Simpsons Movie would finally be the straw that tapped the well completely dry. But it was a good movie. The focus was primarily on the Simpson family itself, where it belonged, rather than all the secondary and tertiary Springfield townspeople as has been the case with so many of the 473 episodes. It was funny from beginning to end with just the right amount of epic adventure and moving tale. In short, it was very well done. I would totally watch another Simpsons movie in theaters were Matt Groening to make one. (I had heard at one point that they'd try to make a total of three, with the third being the be-all end-all franchise ender, but that sounds a whole lot like fan speculation and Internet hearsay.) Anyway, because I won't be purchasing any Simpsons seasons for a long, long time, and because no second movie has even been confirmed, this is both the first and last time you'll hear me talk about The Simpsons on this blog.

When Harry Met Sally...

I bought this on the cheap a few months ago, mostly because I'd never seen it and wondered if it was really the classic that I'd always been led to believe it was. My biggest fear was that it'd be way too much of a chick flick and I'd be gritting my teeth or rolling my eyes at various points. But I'm happy to say that I thought the movie was entertaining and enjoyable in spite of its status as an archetypal modern romantic comedy. Billy Crystal was at his best, rather than his My Giant worst, and his Harry reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld (the character, not the actor) with a little more compassion and a little less hubris. A perfect alternative rom-com lead! I've never had an opinion on Meg Ryan either way, but she was pretty great here. And perhaps I never should have doubted this movie at all since Rob Reiner was in the midst of his best days as a director in 1989, amid a stretch that included This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, and A Few Good Men. There were definitely a few lines and moments that felt far more "cheesy" than either funny or genuine, but I suppose that's what comes with the "love conquers all" territory of the genre. In the end I'd have to say that it was much better than I was expecting it to be, and I'm happy to have seen it. But it'll still be a little while before I try out Pretty Woman or Sleepless in Seattle.

There's Something About Mary

I think this movie was overrated from the get-go for me. Or at least over-hyped. It came out when I was just ten years old (yet doesn't feel dated in the least, strangely enough). It was rated R (which, also strangely enough, hardly seems warranted in hindsight). I just think I was in the midst of that small window, age-wise, when "raunchy" meant "awesome." Friends called it the funniest movie they'd ever seen, but probably because they were ten or twelve years old and thought that semen was hilarious. I was probably also convinced, in that awkward peer-pressure-driven way, that Cameron Diaz was one of the hottest women alive. After all, if the movie was about one woman who a lot of different men wanted to have, she must have been smokin' hot, right? And in the twelve years since the film's debut, I've obviously come to realize that part of the humor is derived from the very opposite truth: that Cameron Diaz is (although by no means ugly) definitely not some kind of sex-oozing beauty. But back in that confusing era of pre-adolescence, I first saw the movie under the impression that Cameron Diaz (and thus the Mary character) was one of the hottest women on the planet and also that the jokes revolving around ear semen and old lady boobs were the funniest things ever put into a movie. So perhaps you can understand why and how this movie has never even come close to living up to my original expectations. Anyway, I hadn't seen the movie in at least five years before last night, and hadn't seen it all the way through in close to ten years, and I hoped that with the advantage of context and hindsight, I could finally give There's Somethign About Mary a fair and honest judgment. And it definitely is a pretty funny movie. I definitely think some of the jokes and quotes have been parodied and copied to death in the past twelve years, and so a lot of the jokes probably still fell flatter for me than they would have had I been unaware of their existence beforehand. But I'd still call the movie worth seeing if, for some reason, you've never seen it before. (Marissa, I'm talking to you. Directly!) But I'm probably mostly recommending that due to the iconic status of the movie; if it hadn't been so popular or parodied, I'd probably say something more along the lines of, "It definitely had it's moments. See if you can find it on Netflix or something." So even with a wiser and more finely-tuned eye for comedy, I really don't find this movie that much better than I did ten years ago. I liked different parts for different reasons, but ultimately, it can't be considered even one of the top ten or so comedies of my lifetime. But Matt Dillon was awesome, Ben Stiller was tolerable, and even Chris Elliott had his moments. Oh, and the cameo by a young Brett Favre only made me hate that guy even more. I'm glad his streak is over, but how many ESPN retrospectives do we still have to sit through during Monday Night Football?

Shadow Complex

A few months ago, Stan raved about this XBox downloadable title- Shadow Complex. Having heard of it before, my interest was piqued, but as I have so many times before, I put it off until the time was just right. The game was short- 5 hours maybe? But I managed to stretch it out over the course of a few weeks. It follows the style of Metroid games, but doesn't copy so much as pay homage to the long-standing Nintendo series. It's a 2-D shooter set in present-day California, where a man hiking with his girlfriend stumbles upon an underground terrorist base, and immediately takes action. And really, for the entirety of the game, that action never lets up. While Metroid games will have a lot of slow back-tracking and puzzle-solving to determine where to go next, Shadow Complex is a little lighter on these elements and tries to cram as much action as possible into every second of gameplay. That's not to say these puzzles don't exist- the ones I needed to do to get through the game were pretty simple but if I had more time to spend playing this I would have loved to run around throughout the base and find all of the hidden upgrades. I'd say by the time I finished, I explored less than half of the total area of the base. Maybe someday I'll return to it. I really had no complaints at all about the game- the voice acting, the story, the controls, the graphics; all were top-notch and especially surprising considering this wasn't a disc release. The game was impressive on all levels and has me interested in the more moderately-received Undertow, Chair Entertainment's first XBLA game. But not enough to put it on my wishlist, that thing's crowded enough.

Sons of Anarchy: Season 1

As always seems to be the case for me, I'm about two years late to jump on the bandwagon of a critically acclaimed cable drama. Sons of Anarchy has now aired three seasons on FX, and after this first one impressed me as much as it did, I think I'll absolutely make it a point to catch up on the other two in time for Season 4's debut next fall. It feels like lately I've struggled somewhat when it comes to Back-Blogged posts, unsure of whether my intention is to summarize, pontificate, or give some kind of sales pitch. But here, I think I can do all three without rambling too much. First of all, I liked this season a lot, but I liked it more and more as I watched it more and more. That's both common and a good thing. The more immersed I was in the world of motorcycle outlaws, the deeper and more meaningful their turmoils became for me, and the more I saw of each character, the more I could relate and empathize with each. The show is set in the fictional California town of Charming and centers around the "Sons of Anarchy," a motorcycle gang specializing in the trafficking of illegal arms. The main character is Jax, a kid in his late twenties, whose father was the original president of the club. Said father has died, and Jax's uncle, Clay, has stepped right into his older borther's role as both club president and Jax's father figure, even going so far as to marry Jax's widowed mother! Now, I may not have been an English major, but even I could catch the Shakespearean vibes right off the bat. So at first I was pretty concerned about how low the ceiling could be for Hamlet with motorcycles. But luckily, the show has been a whole lot more than Hamlet with motorcycles, and I think that's largely due to the great writing and talented ensemble cast. You can often watch a show or movie and recognize an actor from a show or movie you've seen before, but still have no idea who the actor himself is. As in, "Hey, that's (character X) from (movie or TV show Y)! What's his name again?" That happened to me eight or nine times with Sons of Anarchy. Aside from the very recognizable Katey Sagal, there were Rachel from Mad Men, Lloyd from Undeclared, Charlie Utter from Deadwood, Gary Bertier from Remember the Titans, Chili from The OC, Morrison from Braveheart, and some other actors I recognized from shows like House and Prison Break. It's an absolutely stellar array of no-name acting talent and it goes a long way in making this show one of the better dramas I've seen in recent memory. I'm eager and ready for Season 2 to drop down in price enough to justify a purchase. But I'm also in no rush, knowing that Season 3 probably won't be available until August or September. In the mean time, there's a little series called The Wire that I owe it to myself to continue watching.

Final Fantasy III

Earlier this year I started into the epically-long Final Fantasy series, and this is assuredly the last one I'll be able to finish this year- Final Fantasy III, my fifth game in the series. Stan recently beat it as well, and while I don't remember exactly what he highlighted there, he probably mentioned one of the most noteworthy things about the game- how long it took to come to USA. It finally did a few years ago in a nice port on the DS, which is how I played it. It's not too different from your average Final Fantasy game in how it plays, but I'll give you a quick rundown on the main likes and dislikes I've got. First, what the game did well. It's a great update! The graphics look nice, and the controls are all pretty solid- the transition to the DS didn't hurt the game at all. If you want, you can play with odd stylus controls, but I never bothered and neither will anyone else I suppose. The music was as good as any other Final Fantasy game I've played. The combat is pretty basic, but that's to be expected from one of the first games of the series. The game always hovered nicely in between frustrating and broken, so the challenge was never that hard (also I grinded a shit-load before reaching the final boss). And finally, the idea of a job system is something I liked. Want to have a team full of bare-knuckle brawlers? Maybe half summoners and half healers? 20 different jobs means all sort of variety and everyone who plays the game will likely have a different party at the end depending on how they like to play. Now for the dislikes- the job system was set up kinda poorly. I never really felt like I had a good understanding of the significance of the job level. In addition, the later in the game you get, every time you switch jobs you need to fight severely underpowered for 10+ fights. That only encouraged me to stick with the jobs I already had equipped unless I absolutely had to switch. The game's plot just wasn't very good as well. It wasn't as bad as the first Final Fantasy, but the plot was pretty disappointing. It never felt like there was any direction to the game either. The environments were huge, but without a walkthrough I would have been completely lost and gave up a long time ago. But walkthroughs were used, as well as glitches and loopholes to speed up an otherwise boring game. While my post may make the advantages sound like they outweigh the disadvantages, I can assure you they didn't. The game was overall pretty boring and I wouldn't recommend it unless you were trying to get through the entire series. Which hopefully I will! Just don't expect another beaten Final Fantasy game 'til next year.

Breaking Bad Season 1

So what can I say about Breaking Bad season 1? Well, it’s pretty awesome. Five or six years ago, I didn’t watch much tv. I ‘m trying to think if I actually followed any tv shows while in high school. I watched the Simpson’s sometimes. And the OC. That’s really all I can think of. Then I started driving Tristan to school, and he was like “blab la bla watch Lost!” So I did. And it was pretty awesome, up until, well, it wasn’t. And while Lost was going through it’s phase of patheticness, Breaking Bad came alive. Now I’m at college with Tristan and I hear “bla bla bla watch Breaking Bad”. Then it started winning awards. Then Steve bought it. Then I watched it.

And it’s so good! On so many levels! The general plot line of the show which plays out over the first two episodes is the main character Walt gets lung cancer and wants to support his family so he starts cooking meth. This show does so much more than that. You really get to know the characters. Walt’s struggle with cancer is very real and very emotional. The process of starting to cook meth is entirely foreign to him so he gets a partner, and they experience a lot of crap that comes along with being a drug dealer.

I can’t recommend it enough. The show is good on so many levels. It’s a great drama. It has a very realistic pace, but it is more exciting than, say Mad Men, because there is a more action packed plot (ex dealing drugs). The acting, especially by Walt, is phenomenal, nothing like Walking Dead. I’ve seen 4 seasons of Mad Men, 1.5 of Breaking Bad, and 1 of the Walking Dead. I consider this the best of the three.

Also, I just remembered! Something Breaking Bad likes to do is start the episode with a preview of how that episode or a future episode will end. It’s a great technique. The scenes are usually very different than what you would expect the characters to do. They are usually puzzling. It makes you very excited for the episode.

Every Thursday AMC will be showing an episode of Breaking Bad from start to finish up until Season 4 airs. Watch it! DVR it! Tivo it! Record it with a VHS! I implore you to!

P.S. I posted this less than a week after finishing it. I'm getting better.

Parks and Recreation: Season 2

I've probably said more than enough good things about Parks and Recreation. Almost a year ago, I made a post about the first season (when this second season was half over) promising that the show didn't suck. Now, I can promise that it is pretty excellent. "It only gets better" is a very cliche saying, but it pretty accurately describes the quality trajectory of Parks thus far. To recap, the pilot was weak, the first season was hit-or-miss, and its finale was its best episode. This second season came out of the gate stronger than ever, built slowly and steadily, and by midseason was my favorite broadcast network comedy. The final ten episodes or so - and the final two, especially - really may have exceeded any stretch The Office ever had. And now I eagerly await the series' triumphant return in January. I'm cautious and guarded; I've seen too many shows shit the bed after breakout seasons to blindly believe that Season 3 will automatically be fantastic. But early reports from critics who got to screen the first six episodes of Season 3 say that the upward trend continues and the series achieves new heights. Awesome. I guess this post was really more of a promotional piece for Season 3 (which debuts Thursday, January 20th, at 9:30) than anything else, but I'm okay with that. Great show. Great second season. Great expectations for what lies ahead.

Rock Band 3

I don't need to waste my time or yours by giving a lengthy post about Rock Band 3. In short, it was just like all of the other Rock Band games out there except that this time you can play the keyboard. That's really cool, especially on "pro mode," which sort of teaches you how to actually play an actual piano. Pro mode also exists for guitar, bass, and drums, but on drums it only changes a few drum hits to cymbal hits. I've yet to play pro bass or pro guitar (and probably never will) because pro-mode-capable guitar controllers cost something like $150, and that just isn't a sum of money I'm willing to part with for an extra challenge. And that's kind of funny, because if you add up all the money I've spent on Rock Band games, controllers, and songs through the years, you're easily over $750 and possibly close to $1000. I'd rather not even think about that though. Anyway, Rock Band 3 definitely represents the best offering yet from the series and it was a marked improvement over Rock Band 2 (which was a slight improvement over Rock Band, which was a huge improvement over the Guitar Hero games; the music sim genre is evolving, and it's evolving fast). But I think at the end of the day (well, lifetime) I won't have logged nearly as many hours on Rock Band 3 as I did on previous games in the series. I've always had a love-hate relationship with these games (I mean, have I told you how much money I've poured into my relationship with them?) but at this point I think it's become much more of an apathy. I'll still play the game again, no doubt. But probably only if my friends demand it. Regardless, it's nice to be able to call this one beaten. Until now, I hadn't posted anything yet in December, and quite frankly, that just isn't right.

The Stranger

This movie represents the last movie I have watched in my collection. I cannot remember any of it as I watched it in early August. However, I assure you that Steve Austin is a badass in it. He kills no less than 20 people. I won't say this is a good movie, but I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it either. Beyond that, I cannot comment. This is more of a post saying that I am going to get back into the back-logging game.

November 2010 Recap

Blech. What happened? November was our least productive month in a whole year! And after adding a seventh logger to our crew (welcome again, Brian) we should have no excuses for such a slow and sorry month. And yet, I'm alright with the fact that it was our worst month in a year. I'm alright with that because November 2010 still beat November 2009 pretty soundly. Logging may or may not be cyclical and pattern-based, but if it is, then we should have come into the month with no expectations at all. Even if it was only Sweeney and I logging back then, we only managed a paltry 16 posts. What is it about November that says "don't read books or watch DVDs or play video games?" I'm not sure. Maybe Thanksgiving? Maybe, contrary to popular belief that darkness makes for good indoor time, it's the end of Daylight Savings Time? The world may never know. But December is here now, so I expect better things; last December there were 150% as many loggings (24) as there were last November (16). I'm not saying we should expect 35 loggings this month, but I would hope that 30 is attainable, especially given all the time we'll all invariably have off. Hell, why not go for 40?

But then, why shoot for quantity (X number of posts) when it's equally impressive to complete a smaller amount of larger endeavors? Perhaps this has been a flaw as well. By aiming to finish off dozens of shorter books, movies, and games, we leave the beasts of our backlogs. And that is why this month my goals will pertain to lengthier items. But first, how did I do on my November goals? I finished 12 things and unintentionally made it a nice 4-4-4 split between DVDs, games, and books. But what matters more is that my scant one purchase on the month made for a "logress" (logging progress) of +11. Excellent! December brings Christmas, and Christmas brings backlog reinforcements, but I must say I've done pretty well in the past two months (after doing horribly for most of the March through September stretch). I still have something like 120 games, books, and movies to get through, but if I can make strides of +11 every month (and I can't) then I'll be done in a year's time (but I won't be). My one "blemish" in November was my failure to finish Season 1 of Sons of Anarchy. I'm definitely on my way though, through four and a half of thirteen hour-long episodes.

So let Sons' Season 1 be first on my list of December-specific logging goals. And let another goal be another season of The Wire. After all, I said I'd be looking to knock off lengthy items this month. Speaking of which, on the book front, put me down for Ben-Hur. It's the longest work of fiction remaining on my backlog (600+ pages) and if ever there was a month to read a story about Jesus, it'd be December. (Or maybe the running joke could be that I'll start the book now and finish it by Easter? We'll see...) And when it comes to video games, I can promise to finish off both Rock Band 3 and Ico, but neither of those is a lengthy game. Perhaps it's time for me to finally get back to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a 30 to 50 hour game that I'm probably 15 or 20 hours deep into. Cool.

I usually end by asking my fellow loggers if they've got anything specific to log. But this time around I'm going to spice things up and risk controversy by issuing some challenges instead. I mean, we had a pretty weak month, and the six loggers besides me combined for just 11 posts. Maybe everyone else needs some motivation. So at the risk of coming off like a douche, I'll say...

Sweeney: I guess I've got nothing specific to ask of you, since I know your lower monthly totals are a result of tackling longer games than I typically do. Perhaps you'd care to join me in "endless novel" land and take a stab at Ulysses?

Webber: Five posts this month. You went from four in August to three in September to two in October to one in November. Bounce back, baby. Bounce back big.

Marissa: A post every week. You seem to have a tendency to read or watch a bunch of things and then go rapid fire at the end of the month in posting about them all. If you post about things as you finish them, you'll be much better off. And who wants to spend New Years' Eve posting to this silly blog?

Trevor: You're pretty consistent and I like the wide array of things you're logging - books, movies, games, TV shows - so I've got nothing specific for you, either. Just keep doing what you're doing and shoot for five posts if you want to.

Keith: Anything. Any post will do. A comment left on someone else's post would even be nice. We miss you, man!

Brian: Let's get some games posted, huh? Your Backloggery page says you've finished two games in the past two months. you're better than that!

Of course, anyone can fire a challenge right back at me. There's no saying I'll accept it, but we'll see. Also, feel free to state your own December goals in the comments section. Merry logging and blogging, everyone!

Blink

Clearly, having finished my second Malcolm Gladwell book in four days, I can't say that I hate the guy's stuff. My biggest complaint about The Tipping Point wasn't Gladwell's writing style, but rather his book structure in general. And here once again I've found that although his sentences and paragraphs flow quite pleasantly before my eyes, Gladwell just doesn't seem capable of making a coherent nonfiction book with a centralized - or even recurring - topic. In a way, he can be forgiven for his pointlessness as he tends to tackle very ambiguous subjects to begin with; The Tipping Point was about that moment when a trend or a fad becomes a phenomenon, and Blink is about the way we react instantaneously to some things without consciously using our brains to think about them. You know, gut reactions, if you will. But in 250 pages, Blink never actually got around to explaining any cognitive processes. With all due respect to Gladwell - who has even described this book as more of an "adventure through our subconscious" than a wealth of actual knowledge - there's really nothing in the book that can't be summed up as an interesting anecdote. For example, we learn that Pepsi beats Coke in taste tests because it is sweeter and taste tests are based on small sips, a proper portion size in which we favor sweet items. That's our "instant" reaction. But if we drink a whole can of each, we're more likely to enjoy Coke more because eventually the extra sweetness in Pepsi becomes a detriment. Cool. Fun fact. Interesting, and somewhat related to the concept of "thinking without thinking." But then Gladwell goes on to discuss how these sip-sized taste tests led Coke to modify their cola in the 1980s in the "New Coke" fiasco. And then he explains why it backfired. All of this was still interesting, sure, but it was totally unrelated to what was supposedly the theme of the book: snap judgments made in the "blink" of an eye. We hear about some over-aggressive cops. We learn about the early struggles and eventual success of the Aeron office chair. We hear the story of a totally embarrassing military simulation gone wrong. We learn that a hospital in Chicago revolutionized the process of evaluating a patient for a heart attack. And on an excitement level, all of it ranges from "not boring" to "pretty cool." But at the end of the book, the dots are left unconnected. And that doesn't make Gladwell a bad writer. It just makes him a bad book-maker, if that makes sense. I wouldn't say that this book needs to be avoided. I actually enjoyed it a little bit more than The Tipping Point. I just can't say that either book succeeded in informing me about its alleged main subject. But hey, no big deal. At least this book never won the Newbery Medal.

Up in the Air

Last one! (I think)

"The story of a man ready to make a connection" Ha! Get it? He flies a lot? No way! What's that you say! This is a double entendre! Bad ass!

Everyone saw this movie, and I didn’t. Sad face :-( So I wanted to see it! And I did! I think George Clooney can just do whatever he wants now. He’s made enough money and people like him enough, so it’s like, “sure that movie sounds swell”. I enjoyed this one though! It features Bella’s friend from Twilight as an uptight Cornell grad trying to ruins Clooney’s career of traveling around the US and firing people. We got on a heartfelt journey across the US as Clooney tries to convince Twilight girl why his job is needed. On the way, Clooney meets his female counterpart. They’re members of all the same rewards clubs and prefer Hilton hotels. Wow they must be meant for each other. He takes her to his sister’s wedding and has a connection with someone for the first time in a long time.

Spoiler Alert!

That woman turns out to be a total BITCH! He decides to ditch his sad lonely life and settle down only to find out she lies and is married with children (not related to the tv show). Seriously, who does that? Weddings are kinda sorta serious chick. Plus you kinda sorta boned him. That’s uh cheating and lying and misleading. Poor George Clooney. Sad face :-( The move ends very sad in my mind. George Clooney flies a million miles and realizes his whole life has been crap but now he has nothing else. So he just flies. Thus the title. Up in the Air. How clever!

I have a bad feeling everyone hates my posts.

Back to the Future 2

Part Deux!

Hokay. So, good movie! Marty McFly yo! I am tiring of my entries because by mistake I left them all for the last minute again. Also, I decided to reread a few Harry Potters in preparation for the movie, so I didn’t get a lot of logging done. Ooops!

Anyways I liked this movie. It was in the future! 2013 I believe. And guess what?!?! We have flying cars. Prepare yourself, because in three years, society is going to be utterly awesome. Complete with self adjusting jackets: one size fits all!

Marty and Doc travel forward in time to save Marty’s future. Apparently he becomes a bum with trouble maker kids. The plan goes off without a hitch. EXCEPT! Biff sees Marty! And remember the time traveling machine! Uh oh. Biff steals Marty’s plan and takes a sports almanac back to the past and becomes a super millionaire. He destroys the town, kills Marty’s dad, and marries Marty’s mom. What a disaster!

This is where things got confusing to me. Somehow, they go back in time, to the original Back to the Future movie, where other Marty is trying to get his parents to meet. They try to steal the almanac back from Biff and there are all sorts of funny things going on at the same time.

I half fell asleep and woke up confused. But I’m excited for part three! Huzzah!

I kind of ran out of steam for this entry. WHY DO I SAVE THEM ALL?!

G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra

Oh jeez! I sense another set of Marissa posts coming because she forgets to do them immediately! Ooops!

Ah, G.I. Joe. Only my most favorite action movie evah. Complete with Eiffel Tower eating nano mites, invisibility suits, and shark boats, this movie is great. At least in my opinion. Which apparently is the minority. Yes, this movie is absolutely RIDICULOUS. In every sense of the word. Probably more so than my last movie review, Wanted. However, I found it thoroughly entertaining and funny. Enough with an opinion though! The real crux of this movie boils down to this: bad girl hot versus girl next door hot.

Enter Rachel Nichols as Scarlett. Your typical girl next door hot. Oh, and she’s brilliant and can fight. The complete package basically. She graduate college when she was 12 and considers everything very scientifically. Thus, she doesn’t get love. Anywho, she’s damn good looking. (Bad news: I couldn't find any G.I. Joe pictures of her looking all adorable, so I used this one of her being bad ass)

Opposite her enters Sienna Miller as Ana. Your typical slutty beauty. A bit more rough around the edges, but still good looking. Ana was girl next door hot girl and was going to marry out super star Duke until he let her nerdy brother die during a war. She has changed and is now working for the dark side. (Side note: She did not change voluntarily. Her brother was actually alive and injected nanomites into her head thus being able to control her. Yea.) Anywho, for her transition to the dark side she trades in her blond hair and dresses for black hair and skin tight suits. She now oozes sex.

Who wins in this battle of hot girl? Who would you prefer?

Guess what? Looking for pictures, I found another blog post! And someone stole my gimick again! Jerks! Anywho, this person has a lot of might seductive pictures of both of them for your comparison. I don't think you should look at work.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

So, this is the third and final book of the Millenium trilogy.

Spoiler Alert!

We leave our main character “the girl” recovering in a hospital after almost being killed by her father, the woman trafficker. Michael Blomkvist, after saving Lisbeth, finds himself caught up in a murder investigation. Basically, the entire book he spends trying to defend Lisbeth’s honor by clearing her name. In the process, he undercovers some pretty hefty government secrets revolving around “the sector”.

End Spoiler Alert!

Overall, I think this book was the second best of the three. The first book took to long to get going for my liking. The second book was great and full of action and plot. This book is a weird combination. It’s more of a courtroom mystery. (I made up that term; it may not make sense.) The book basically centers around Michael Blomkvist’s own investigation. There is not much action. He does a bit of sleuthing. And Lisbeth is a fairly non existent character in terms of plot development until towards the end of the book. It was slow but interesting because you have invested a lot into the characters already. The second and third book really could make up one mega book, and the author does a good job concluding the story.

Like me. The end.

Side Note! So, as I was looking for the picture for this I stumble upon another blog where a guy reviews books. How about that! Anyways, I read his review, and surprise, surprise it is very similar to mine. However, I liked this quote

"The first book is a mystery. The second book turns more towards an action thriller. This third book is very “Law & Order/CSI”."

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

It seems like my Newbery book posts have grown progressively shorter and more sarcastic. So I'll do my best to make this one as lengthy and meaningful as I possibly can. Umm, Mrs. Frisby is a field mouse and her youngest son is sick and bed-ridden but there is an imminent need for her family to relocate so she seeks advice from the rats of NIMH. NIMH stands for National Institute of Mental Health and the rats are actually lab rats who have escaped, but now they have humanlike intelligence thanks to some experiments, but they still don't know if they should help Mrs. Frisby or not until Mrs. Frisby overhears a bunch of people talking about exterminating a colony of rats and it turns out they are the rats of NIMH and Mrs. Frisby informs the rats thusly and, ever grateful, the rats of NIMH help her out. Man. Where do I even begin? It's too easy to start poking plot holes into a children's book with talking animals. It's too obvious to point out all of the flaws in the story and the concept. It'd be too harsh to rip into the author for boring characters and a lack of originality. So I won't do any of those things. Instead I'll just politely point out that with this book's completion I now have just 30 books left in my backlog. The Christmas season will surely knock that back up above thirty, even if I can get it below 30 before then, but for now, yeah, it's nice to have just 30 books left. And for that reason alone, I'm happy to have read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point is a book about that special "moment" when a trend becomes a full-blown epidemic. Malcolm Gladwell attempts to explain the social science behind that phenomenon. You've seen it before. A few people in a select group begin to wear something, for example, such as Ugg boots. Soon the trend is noticed and copied, but only by a few people, and maybe only in a specific place. For years the number of Ugg-wearers continues to increase but still remains very small compared to the number of shoe-wearers in general. And then all of a sudden, Ugg boots hit the "tipping point" and within months you begin to see people everywhere sporting the trend. It's not just exponential growth. It's a sudden explosion in popularity. The concept is one we're all familiar with, I'm sure, but I was excited to read a book about it and see some histories and explanations at work. I did learn a number of interesting things, and the book was interesting (or at least not boring) from beginning to end, but I was ultimately disappointed in this read, largely for two reasons. The first wasn't Gladwell's fault at all; it was the publication date. The Tipping Point first came out a full decade ago in the year 2000. And that means it was probably being written between 1997 and 1999. And for a book based on social trends, that was a bit of an issue. Due to the time period, Gladwell doesn't use Ugg boots or Crocs as anecdotes for the tipping point. Instead, he looks at Hush Puppies and Airwalk sneakers. Wow! I'm sure I'd have cared more ten years ago, but those are two horribly dated footwear items. And back then, the information revolution really had yet to begin. Yeah, we had email and cell phones, but only barely. And we didn't have Facebook or YouTube or any form of viral marketing in general. "User-created content" has become so crucial to social interaction and trend-setting these days, and reading Clinton years Gladwell talk about the power of "word of mouth" without ever referencing the Internet at all felt as quaint as a 2000 movie review that praises The Phantom Menace for having great CGI effects. Any decade-old book will feel dated in its discussion of topical trends, but to "miss" the 2000-2010 decade is to miss a game-changing shift in the very way we communicate. And that was very unfortunate. The other snafu that I do pin on Gladwell is an inability to stay on one real track. Although every chapter was interesting, the writing really jumped all over the place, from "Sesame Street was a successful show because it defied conventions" to "crime in New York City dropped dramatically in the early '90s because of the 'broken window' effect" to "Gore-Tex is a successful company because it limits each plant to 150 workers or fewer" to "Paul Revere was able to spread his warning message so effectively because he was a very charismatic man." Again, all interesting stuff, but what does any of it have to do with that "tipping point" that this book is ostensibly about? Nothing. It'd be one thing if each of these points came back to reinforce a central point that the author was building and reiterating throughout the book. (This is part of why I think Freakonomics and its sequel were so effective.) Instead, all of the ramblings never really found each other and remained episodic and isolated. There just seemed to be a real lack of focus. In the end I didn't hate this book, but I can't give it a strong recommendation due to the aforementioned issues. I've got one more Gladwell book on my backlog, but if it wasn't already on my bookshelf I wouldn't have gone out of my way to read any of his other works.

Mass Effect 2

Oh crap! I beat this game a week ago and forgot to make a post for it. Anyway, I played Mass Effect early this year and despite its high praise was rather unimpressed. The create-your-own story was interesting, but the combat was dull, the vehicle segments sloppy, and no matter how fun it was choosing random lines from conversations, the plot was pretty trite. Well, Bioware fixed basically everything with Mass Effect 2. The combat? Much more fun! I personally loved the sniper rifle, which slowed time for a few seconds every time I looked through the scope- waves of enemies fell to my devastating headshots. The RPG elements worked much better here as well. In the first game I really noticed no difference in gaining a level, but in Mass Effect 2 you could spend experience points on cool new abilities which did indeed come in handy on the battlefield. The crappy driving sections on the Mako in the first game were done away with completely. The plot's no longer a generic "save the universe as captain hero" story, but instead tells a much more interesting tale. Captain Shepard goes down with his ship, the Normandy, at the start of the game, but is saved and kept alive in a comatose state for two years by a terrorist organization from the first game. When the purpose for all this is revealed, Shepard is faced with some tough choices that aren't nearly as black and white as the ones in the original Mass Effect. The plot also unfolds in a much easier way to follow here- a majority of the game consists of finding and gaining the loyalty of 8 new crew members. For instance, to find one member of your team Shepard starts up a prison riot, breaking a powerful woman out of jail, eventually killing the warden. Later on in the game I had the option of helping her face some memories of her past by blowing up the abandoned school/prison where she grew up. There's plenty of variation in the missions- sometimes I never even had to fire a gun to complete the job. It kept me interested throughout the entire game, and unlike a lot of the games I've logged, I really never got bored. Oh, all this time talking about the gameplay and I haven't mentioned that the game is freakin gorgeous. Really my only gripe about the game is that the few loading screens can take a little while to finish. Other than that Mass Effect 2 was a fantastic game, and highly recommended. Just be sure to play the first one, even though it's worse, to get the full story.

Catching Fire

Finally, I’m on break. And that means there’s time for some catching up I’ve been meaning to do. Last night I scarfed down the second installment of The Hunger Games Trilogy and I have some mixed feelings on the book. Prior to reading this, I’ve heard several viewpoints saying that either the book was great or read like melodramatic crap. I’m of two minds on this whole issue. From here on out I’m going to give away some important plot points, so...

***SPOILER ALERT***

The way the book opens was a little bland, at least for my taste. Yeah, we’ve got the government moving to control the citizens and the riots. Yeah, we learn of the secret and mysterious District 13. And, yeah, we hear that our heroes are unfairly recruited back into the this year’s Hunger Games - The Quarter Quells. All of this is fine and well, but the love triangle always rubs me the wrong way. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear a 16-year-old girl bitch and moan about her relationship issues - or lack thereof - while the whole damn world is coming apart! I’m aware that this might be a storyline that is the most compelling to some. However, I can only describe it as tedious.

This whole thing rolls on for the majority of the book until we finally enter the Game. Now I’m getting excited. I have to say that regardless how “Twilight” the series can get at times, Collins always redeems herself with the violence and gore that unfolds as all the tributes savagely duke it out against one another. Acid fog, blood rain, killer monkeys all in an arena that operates as a clock - pretty inventive. I just wish there were more and that it wasn’t all crammed into the very end.

And there’s the ending. I have to say I - probably amongst others - saw this coming. (By seeing it coming I mean that some of the tributes were instructed to save Katniss, waiting for their rebel group to save them.) While I wasn’t particularly wowed by it, I didn’t dislike it either. Let’s just put it this way, I’m motivated to finish off the series. And although I’m of two minds on this story, if I’m compelled enough to read on then I think the author has done her job.

Red Dead Redemption

With what appears to be my first post of the month, I give to you: Red Dead Redemption. Even if you’ve never played the prequel, just by seeing the front cover of the game - a mean looking cowboy eyeing you down accompanied with the Rockstar Games logo - you should be able to say to yourself, “Looks like GTA mixed with the western genre.” That is precisely what this game is.

In general, it was fun; however, RDR still doesn’t have what it takes to match his urban cousin in the future. The gun fights match up about the same as GTA’s except for the addition of the duels, which are - somewhat - cool. And although the magnificent scenes of the great plains are quite the spectacle at first, they slowly become one of the games most boring features. Ever new mission requires you high tail it across the country where you trot on horseback through this giant, stale environment in where there is nothing to do. Well, wait... on occasion you might choose to defend some poor old farmer being hassled by bandits, or you might get the chance to do some hunting, bag yourself a deer, but it pales in comparison to the city in any GTA. Where are the hidden jumps I can hurl my car off of, cops I can piss of and send chasing after me, hookers looking for a “good time” in the park? The missions and gun fights may be fun, but I found myself rolling my eyes every time I started a mission that required me to ride for 5-10 minutes before I arrived at any conflict. Lots of boredom.

Also, the game was a little to easy - even for me. Even if I do enjoy a nice walk in the park from time to time, I still want my games to provide some challenge along the way. The zoom feature allows you to instantly lock onto your enemies. So by constantly toggling my left trigger, I almost guarantee a hit with every shot I take. Add on top of this the fact you can earn more money than you know what to do with (Five Fingers Fillet - after only four wins you set yourself up to $100 for ever win after; a real easy event to abuse and make yourself rich as hell in no time), you could find yourself armed to the teeth with the games most lethal guns.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I did all this coming to the last stage, a point where you make a final stand at your hose holding off the US Army from killing your family. I slaughtered a hundred men without using my dead-eye (the game’s bullet-time feature) once. However, this only makes the ending more pathetic.

Your wife and son scurry away as about twenty men line up outside the barn you’ve locked yourself in just waiting to shoot you down when you come out. Now I’ve just killed dozens of these guys without so much as breaking a sweat, and now the game forces you out the front door into a duel with impossible odds. Needless to say, your shot down with only enough time to take a couple of other fellows with you. But why couldn’t I have run out the other side of the barn or climbed to the roof - I saw an opening up there, why the hell doesn’t the game?!

Regardless, I still had fun. In the end, though, I longed for something more.

Wait a tick! What’s this Undead-thing I’ve been hearing some much about as an added download feature to the game. Well, I reached the credit screen, so the game is beaten - and therefore blog-worthy - but maybe not finished.

Final Fantasy III

A lengthy game merits a lengthy post, and when it comes to the 35-hour Final Fantasy III, there is so much to talk about. I could discuss the job class progression I chose for my characters. I could complain about the light and uninteresting story. I could do my best to describe my affinity for the Final Fantasy series to an audience that may or may not have a working knowledge of RPGs in general. I could bitch about the brutal and relentless final dungeon and boss, bemoaning the lack of save points. Instead though, I'm just going to keep this light, simple, and informative rather than introspective. FF3 came out in Japan in 1990 for the 8-bit NES (or as it was known in Japan, the "Famicom" - Family Computer). But it never came out in America until this 2006 DS remake. I bought it and played through the first two thirds of it in 2008 and, on a few key days in the past couple of months, beat it entirely. And having finally done so, I really don't feel all the richer for the experience. FF3 just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. That doesn't mean I'm disappointed I put thirty hours of my life into it. It just means I don't think you should do so unless you absolutely love the series and feel the need to play every Final Fantasy game there is. (Like me.) I'm glad they finally released an American version of this game, and it was actually a huge contributing factor when it came to my decision to buy a DS. But would I play it again? I highly doubt it. There are better games out there. There are better handheld games, better RPGs, and even better Final Fantasy games on the DS. (Well, at least one: FF4, the other reason I bought a DS.) I'm just glad to be done with this one. Maybe they were in no rush to Americanize it because it just wasn't that noteworthy. Anyway, it's nice to take a thirty-hour game off of my backlog. Two DS games remain, but neither should be as long as this one was. Time will tell.