Reviews Archives - Page 11 of 12

City of Sin

Sin City (2005)

My rating: 5 out of 5

Sin City… wow. I’m not even sure where to start.

I’ve cut down on my reviews recently, they’re not really my focus anymore. But this movie needs to be written about.

It’s got action, character, plot twists, humor, violence, pretty much anything you can think of. But most of all, a jaw-dropping visual style. The movie looks like a comic book on the screen. Some shots I could point you to the exact panel of Frank Miller’s graphic novels that its based on (and that’s a good thing). This has to be the most faithful adaptation yet.

And the cast! Everybody is cast perfectly, even when going ‘against type’. Elijah Wood as a psychotic serial killer, for example. He never says a single word, but still manages to sell the role.

Out of the three main stories, I think I enjoyed the scenes from That Yellow Bastard. Bruce Willis’ Hartigan is the most noble, do-the-right-thing guy you’ll ever meet. One of the few truly likeable people in Sin City actually. He has the worst possible bad luck, but still comes out standing up. I don’t want to spoil it any more than that for you.

Jessica Alba surprised me. I’ve never seen much she’s been in, but she’s got some decent acting chops here. Confident stripper one scene, scared little girl the next.

I can’t let the review end without commenting on the violence. There’s a lot of it, to put it lightly. But its done so artfully in the black and white world – glowing white pools of blood slowly seep out of the shadows – that you can’t help but be mesmerized. It’s art, pure and simple.

I’ll be interested to see how Sin City does at the box office. It was sold out where we went, but of course it would be on opening weekend. I don’t think its a movie for the general public. It’s wonderful, but I don’t see Joe From The Street appreciating it.

If I have any real complaint, its that at some times I felt lost. Viewers are thrown into the middle of a story right off the bat. Having read the comics I could jump in feet first, but without that foreknowledge it might have taken me a bit to catch up. I meant to ask the people I saw it with afterwards, but forgot. There’s a lot going on, Sin City is a very complex movie. But definitely worth your time.

Movies are so expensive around here that I just can’t justify going to the theater very often. But Sin City is an exception I’m glad I made.

Computers in Libraries 2005 – Day 2

When: Wednesday, March 16 2005

Where: Washington Hilton, Washington D.C.

More Information: http://www.infotoday.com/cil2005/default.shtml

My Role: Attendee

Yes they spelled Pittsburgh wrong. I fixed it with pen.

I was going to post a separate entry for each speaker today, but I probably don’t have enough content from some to warrant full entries. So here we go!

Day two (my first day of taking part) of CIL2005 has been amazing.

After a continental breakfast, Clifford Lynch opened up as today’s keynote speaker. He gave a great general history of the last 20 years in library computer use, as this is the 20th conference. 1985 was the dawn of online catalogs, and he pointed out that around that time both OPACs and ATMs were the average citizen’s introduction to computer use.

The main trend he highlighted is the switch from scarcity to abundance, Especially in the area of online texts. Blogging even produces an abundance of authors and a broader authorship. Potential flashpoints in the future: Intellectual Property, privacy, security, and the persistence of personal history in the Google age.

As an anecdote, I also learned the CiL was originally called “Small Computers in Libraries.” As opposed to mainframes. Seems everybody stopped referring to your average model as ‘Microcomputers’ a ways back.

David King was my first regular speaker of the day, on the topic of “Targeting Library Web Sites to Specific User Groups. I’d met up with Greg of Open Stacks (who recognized me by my nametag) and we attended together. My first major thrill of the day was being introduced to David afterwards and hearing him say “Oh, I read your blog.” And there’s something fun about being introduced as “Chad, of Hidden Peanuts.” Suppose I should talk about the presentation itself…

Really interesting, he laid out his experience with crafting library web pages aimed at specific population segments. “Niche marketing” sums it up nicely. Common sense stuff sort of, but I never would have put it together myself. His library has seen good results from their wide range of targeted pages.

Next was David King and Scherelene Schatz at JerseyClicks & KC Research: Content Gateways. They jointly discussed their federated search projects aimed at specific geographic areas (Kansas City and New Jersey, respectively).

Lunch break! Went to Chipotle with Aaron, David, Greg, Michael, Andrea and a number of other bloggers and people whose names I have already forgotten. I’m horrible in that respect. Great food there, I had a gigantic burrito. I was my quiet self most of the time, but they’re all great people and I’m more comfortable now. Aaron and Michael are both on Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers list this year, so congrats to them!

Next up: Stephen Abram’s What do Gartner’s Predictions Really Mean to Libraries?

This man is hilarious and one of the best public speakers I’ve ever seen. He talked about the next decade as one of gigantic change, similar to the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th. He sees RFID, trusted computing, and other such things as some of the changes coming. He made an interesting point about RFID: It’s harder in libraries. Somewhere like Wal-Mart doesn’t care if the tags die the moment the items leave the stores. In libraries, we want the tags and items back.

Abram also cited one case in Canada where an extensive library instruction program for adults reduced unemployment in the community by 26%!

Designing Navigation that Works was honestly the one let down of the day. The speaker, Louise Gruenberg, was obviously very knowledgable on the topic. However, she completely ran out of time and I feel like the meat of the topic wasn’t really covered. Didn’t come away with much I didn’t already know.

Using LAMP to Make Your Library Shine was really interesting as well. Sensing a theme yet? The three presenters explained the process of implementing a number of open source solutions at SUNY Stony Brook’s medical school. Their demo didn’t function as it should have, but that’s tech for you. Nice to see stuff like a Content Management System being put into such use.

After this was the wine and cheese reception in the vendors’ exhibition hall. It was fun to wander and see the demo models of equipment, but they’re more focused on selling products to libraries than any career-related functions I might be inclined towards. Good wine, and I managed to make a meal out of all the food provided.

Lastly, the day ended with the annual “Looking at Dead & Emerging Technologies” panel discussion. Its borderline library stand up comedy, and a blast to sit through. I can’t really summarize it, you had to be there. See previous post for a bit more on the topic. Nice to have this one after they get everyone liquored up at the reception 🙂

This has been really rambling and I apologize. Tomorrow I’ll try to be more organized. Now I’m off to wander and mingle!

I’ll leave you with this picture:

That’s the line for the e-mail terminals on the vendors’ floor. Very appropriate I thought.

Flight of the Phoenix

Flight of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition) (2004)

My rating: 4 out of 5

I finally got around to watching the 2004 version of Flight of the Phoenix tonight. I watched the original version a couple months back, and the comparisons are interesting.

The new matches the old in just about all of the major plot points. The nomads are handled a little differently, but really only to add in a couple of action scenes that the original did just fine without.

My sole major criticism is really about the addition of a female cast member. Miranda Otto’s character seems to be present only to give a half-realized romantic interest for Dennis Quaid. The original FOTP was not a romance. Modern movies try to toss in a random romantic element far too often.

Good solid entertainment, with some capable human drama. I would have given the movie three stars. However, the random desert Chinese motorcycle gang seen in the trailer does not appear in the film. That editing choice alone deserves an extra star.

SciFi + Tech = Sweet

I continue to be amazed by the things the SciFi Channel is doing with the Battlestar Galactica web site.

First show runner Ron Moore started a blog there. Then the first episode was made available to watch streaming. Now, there’s podcasting! You can download commentaries by Moore in mp3 form to watch along with the show.

The first podcast/commentary is up for episode 9, which aired in the U.S. last night (I think). Episode 10 was one of my favorites in the season, and these commentaries are probably enough to get me to watch it again.

I may have berated the SciFi Channel in the past for their programming choices, but they get an A+ in their handling of BSG.

I’m still not a fan of the term ‘podcasting’, but I really can’t come up with something better either. Not all mp3 players are iPods.

Itunes, Schmytunes

Yesterday I won a free iTunes song from a Pepsi bottle. Exciting, I thought. So I went to my computer, installed iTunes, and redeemed my code. In the process I got another 5 free songs since I signed up with my paypal account. So far, so good.

I grabbed a couple songs, and downloaded away. The plan was to move them over to my Muvo TX mp3 player. But – no can do. I didn’t realize this before, but apparently without an iPod there’s no way to take iTunes songs portable.

Or maybe I’m just not finding the right option? For now though this seems like a boneheaded decision by Apple. Probably not a new situation, but this is the first I’ve tried it. I can convert the files to mp3s, but only by burning and then re-ripping the songs – sound quality is lost in the process. I should be able to do what I want with music I have legally bought.

I’ve been buying music from Napster for a while now and can move them over to my player no problem. So there my money will continue to go.

Side rant: On both Napster and iTunes, I’ve noticed something troubling. A number of tracks are now available “Album Only”, meaning they cannot be bought as a single song. You have to shell out prices inflated to more than the normal $.99/song for the whole album. One of the big plusses for buying music like this for me has been the ability to pick and choose. Is this to be taken away? I hope “Album Only” does not catch on.

Grandview Saloon

Grandview Saloon: Two thumbs up!

Mom and Dad came into town and we took the Duquesne incline up Mt. Washington. The restaurant is about as close to the top of the incline as you can get.

Unfortunately a youth hockey team took up the dining room with the best view, but it was still beautiful. And actually affordable to boot. Had a delicious burger and brownie type dessert thing.

Officially added to my ‘potential date destination’ list. And also the first addition.

I do wish the weather had cooperated to allow pictures of the skyline, but hey you can’t have everything.

One Small Step…

Last night I did something I haven’t done in a long time:

I stopped watching a TV show.

Over the past few years I’ve been picking up more and more shows that I watch. Normally enough get cancelled quickly that I had no net gain each season. Recently though, my TV schedule has simply gotten too crowded and time consuming to keep up with each week.

I came up with a simple solution: Stop watching the worst one. And that award goes to Alias.

I foolishly watched it all the way through last season, despite being mediocre at best in some portions. But this season is worse. Last week’s episode featuring a drug that turns people into paranoid-psychotic vampires was a new low. Character inconsistencies have been piling up this season and the show doesn’t even have a season-long plot anymore to hold things together.

So long, Alias. If you ever return to your former glory of seasons 1 and 2, drop me a line.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

I rented Call of Duty: Finest Hour over the weekend.

Great fun, but once again really only worth a rental.

The single player game has amazingly detailed and vast levels. I’ve played a bunch of World War II first person shooters, and this is the first that (at points at least) made me feel like I’m in the trenches, like I can understand a small portion of being in that situation. This is particularly true in the first few levels in the game, defending Stalingrad.

I haven’t beaten the American portion of the campaign yet, but the Russian missions took me just a few hours, and the British missions even less. I suppose its the quality/quantity trade-off in effect once again.

I also have yet to give the Xbox Live portion a whirl, but I doubt I have the skills to enjoy it very much.

This game was really the last on my Xbox ‘to play’ list, so I’ll probably be taking some time off from anything new for the forseeable future.

Battlestar Galactica

Last night I saw the season finale of the new Battlestar Galactica. What an episode! I really can’t say much about the ending; if I had it spoiled for me I would have regretted it. It takes a lot for a movie or show to get my jaw to literally drop. I really hope there’s a second season to keep things moving along and resolve one hell of a cliffhanger. There’s only been 13 episodes in season 1 (and also a 4 hour miniseries that kicked things off), and there’s much potential remaining.

The new (never saw the old one and have no desire to) Battlestar Galactica is officially my #3 favorite Sci-Fi show of all time (behind a tied Deep Space 9 and Firefly for the #1 spot).

I got to watch the show early thanks to ‘connections’ from England. Here in the U.S., the Sci-Fi channel is on episode 3 or 4 I think. Tune in, this show deserves your viewing time.

The ‘ol Roundup

ButtonMashing.com linked to me today (thanks by the way!) as a new blog he found that comments on gaming from time to time. Made me realize that its been far too long since I have. So I present a roundup of what I’ve been playing recently. Or more accurate, what’s been taking time away from Halo 2 online play.

KOTOR II has sucked up 95% of my gaming time. Amazing game, though I do admit to being a bit disappointed in the difficulty level of gameplay. The first couple planets are somewhat difficult, but after that it levels off quick. I think because you can play the planets in any order, the difficulty level of them all is set low. Each planet has to be beatable should you go to it first and unexperienced. Last night I blazed through Korriban in maybe half an hour. The fights should have been much harder. Or maybe I just spend too much time leveling up, I dunno. But the plot is A+ and makes up for any shortcomings. I also appreciate some of the finer details of play; gaining influence and converting your party members to Jedi has a certain satisfaction to it.

Burnout 3: Takedown was a fun rental last weekend. I normally hate racing games. I end up trying to cause the biggest wipeouts possible rather than complete the races. Finally, someone made a game where that’s the main objective! Burnout 3 is one of the most addicting games I’ve played in a while, particularly crash mode (wherein you try to cause the biggest dollar amount of damage possible in an intersection). I just gotta remember to drive a little easier if I go out right after playing… The online component was a mess though. I tried it once and after failing to join games 6 times in a row, and getting booted from one that finally worked, I gave up. Really makes me appreciate Halo 2’s implementation of Xbox Live.

Katamari Damacy remains top on my list of games I’d like to play. If only I had a PS2… I might buy it anyway just to get a copy before it disappears.