DAN’S BLOG

SUCKED!!! This is the second time writing this post because for some reason when I posted it the first time it went straight into the bit bucket! Grr. Anyway. Today we went to see Miami Vice. I have never seen the TV series but the movie looked like just a long TV episode or something. Here’s the Pros and Cons.

Cons:

• Too freaking long @ 2 hours and 30 mins or so. They wasted soooo much time on useless scenes where the characters are on long walks down hallways, having sex, taking showers, driving their cars, flying their planes, having more sex, etc. The movie could have been an hour shorter if they would just cut the crap and get right to the ass kicking.
• No soundtrack. There was basically no music, just some canned music in the background sometimes. Nothing fancy at all.
• Image quality. I could totally tell the whole movie was shot using cheapish 3xCCD cameras. You could almost reach out and feel the grainyness of the gain noise from the CCD in low light shots. Plus add the film scratches from the transfer to film and it’s poop. The first few mins of the film had a big series of scratches in the middle of the film, probably from being played a lot.
• Not enough action. Quite boring. There was a good gun fight scene and maybe a good explosion, but that’s all really.

Pros:

• I got to use my free AMC ticket from my MovieWatchers card! YAY. It nearly expired and I REALLY didn’t want to let it go to waste. Thanks guys for coming to see a movie today. Even if it did turn out to be a bad one.
• We ate burgers at Carl’s Jr. afterwards for dinner. Yumm.

(There I think I prety much recreated the post I lost. )
Conclusion, don’t watch Miami Vice unless you are blind and have a free ticket and nothing better to do.

We went to see Superman Returns today. I wanted to see it and so did my dad. It just took us a while to finally get up and go see it before it’s out of the theatres. We went to go see it at the UltraStar but when we got there they told us that the air conditioner for the Superman theatre was broken and it was pretty warm in there. We opted to go home and look up the showtimes at a different UltraStar. The thing is, UltraStar has the digital DLP projectors and AMC has film projectors. Our options for seeing the movie in another UltraStar were limited, so we went to a slightly later showing at the AMC 24. Personally I like the AMC better anyway. I had a couple free ticket vouchers, plus I gained 4 MovieWatchers points on my AMC card. I now have 30 points total which got me a coupon for a free large drink and popcorn or a free ticket.

The movie itself was prety good. I thought the new actor that plays Superman did a good job. Actually the Lois Lane gal didn’t look very Lois-ish to me. I think they wanted her to look hotter or something so they make more money. Go figure.

One other topic.. no more of a rant.
< rant > PEOPLE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! When they play that message for you to “not add your own soundtrack!” before every movie begins, they are talking to YOU!!! Yes YOU! Look at this, you’re spacing out right now! Pay attention!!!! They are not trying to say, “Yes please do feel free to chat to your friends in spanish just loud enough to piss people off but not quite loud enough to make people jump the seat and strangle you to death!” I felt like I was listening to the Spanish directors commentary as translated by the director’s fat wife! < /rant >
Deep breaths. ok i’m good now.

Tonight I went out with Mark, David, Jesse, and a few people from Mark’s church to see Pixar and Disney’s new movie, “Cars”. WOW. That’s what I have to say. It was everything I was hoping for. Well done Pixar, as usual. It is a very unique and original story. The audio was outsanding! A movie should be felt, not heard. LOL. VROOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!! I give it two pistons up.

Today we (we being my family, Mark and David’s family, and Jesse) all saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I thought it was an excelent movie. I tend to like Sci-Fi and Fantasy type movies a lot. This was packed full of computer graphics and very good characters. The creatures and props were extremely well done.

The only thing I didn’t like was the people in the theartre. For those of you who make noise in theatres, STOP IT. Grarrr. Don’t take you whiny little brats either. I’ll get this one on DVD and watch it with headphones next time.

Today I went with Ken and some friends to see a 3:00PM showing of the new Wallace and Gromit movie at the Edwards theater on Mira Mesa. It was halarious! It really held true to the Wallice and Gromit trilogy. I thought it was witty and crammed full of all the qualities I enjoy. I can’t wait to buy it on DVD when it comes out.
Before the movie is a new short featuring the penguins from Magagascar that is also very halarious.

Yesterday went quite well. Mark, David, my Uncle, Jesse, Jesse’s Dad, Jesse’s Sister, and myself all went to Frys to shop for various things. It took 2 cars. I personally was able to refrain from buying anything. So was David and Mark. It is a very hard thing to do, to go to Frys and not buy anything. LOL. Mark did, however, manage to get his dad to buy a 300GB Seagate HD! It’s amazing really. He hates Seagate because they used to suck 20 years ago. I have 4 200GB Seagate drives and they work FINE!

After Frys Mark, David, Jesse, and I played Age of Empires II: The Conquorers. I like that game. Every time I play it I get a little better but I always suck. LOL.

The movie for the evening was Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli and directed by Miyazaki. This is among my all time favorite Anime movies. Mark bought the DVD a while ago but had not found the time to watch it. So FINALLY we watched it and I am happy now. I just wish less people (cough Jesse and UK Dave cough) disliked movies like this just because they are animated and not “real” actors. Just as much work and feeling goes into making animated films as normal films. Sometimes even more…. But this is probably a topic for another blog entry.

On Sunday we went to see Madagascar at the AMC 24. It was mom, dad, myself, Mark, Jessie, Steve and Sudi. That movie is GREAT! I found it to be halarious. I liked it much better than Robots. I love the style of the animation and the story was unique and inventive. The voice talent was also superb. Do you like to move it, move it? LOL

I just saw Kingdom of Heaven with my cousins’ family and Jessie. For what the movie is suposed to be, it’s ok I guess. Way too long though. It goes on and on. Personally I’d MUCH rather see Star Wars III and Madagascar! I’m really tired of all these freaking midevil swards and blood and war movies. GRrrar. I wish the movie people would just lay off that topic for a while. Besides, I really didn’t follow most of the story because every other character looked the same and they talk too funny. :-/