Well… it may not be the most ideal path to Olympic Gold, but the men’s hockey team managed to get past Germany last night, setting up a collision course with Russia.  Our track record against the Russians isn’t exactly great.  I believe TSN said that we’ve never beaten them in the Olympics.  That means that there’s always a first time, and 2010 is it!

8:30 tonight I’ll be glued to my TV.  Bring ‘em on.

Yes, I’ve heard more than one person complain about how the greyhound video starts automatically as soon as you hit the home page…  It’s pretty annoying, isn’t it?  I’m not sure if there’s a way to stop that, other than clicking “pause” as soon as it starts.  It would have been nice had it been like a YouTube video that you have to click on it to activate, rather than starting by itself every time.

A couple more blog posts and it’ll be pushed off the front page, and you won’t have to listen to it any more 

Finally managed to get to the theatre last night and see James Cameron’s Avatar.  I tend to over-use the phrase “visually stunning” while describing some of the latest movie releases, but this one definitely fits that description.  Even if it wasn’t in 3D, I imagine that it would still be stunning.  There’s no doubt about it…  the bar has been raised.

But what about the movie itself?  I couldn’t help but think that I was watching a modernized version of Pocahontas.  (My sister says Pocahontas AND Ferngully, but I don’t really remember Ferngully, so I’ll just stick with Pocahontas)  I wasn’t really feeling the whole “we’re one with our natural surroundings” vibe, which is a shame because that’s a central theme.

The combat scenes were amazing though, and helped rekindle my interest.  Also, I’m sure that Cameron would be pleased to know that his 3D imagery triggered my dislike of heights, so that gives an idea of how realistic it was at times.

Was is good?  Hell, yes.  Was it great?  Well.. It was “pretty”… I’m glad that I saw it in 3D in the theatre because that’s the greatest visual experience possible.  I suspect a month from now when I think back to whether I liked Avatar, I’ll be remembering it solely for the visual effects, and not much else.

It was good, and I’m glad that I had the chance to see it, but would I rush out to see it again? 

No, probably not.

Lately when I’ve gone to see a movie, I really haven’t reviewed it, so much as just given a quick overview and said “Go see it!”  or “Wait until it comes out on video”.  Well, this one is going to be different… so please.. STOP READING RIGHT NOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GOING TO SEE THIS MOVIE, BECAUSE I *AM* GOING TO RUIN A MAIN PART OF THIS MOVIE IF YOU KEEP READING!

Still reading?

You’ve been warned.

Actually, I’m hoping that someone who has already seen The Book of Eli will read this and chime in.. either tell me that I’m completely out to lunch, or agree with me.  It doesn’t matter which.

Paul and I went to watch The Book of Eli on Thursday night.  We’ve been meaning to go see it, and our schedules finally matched!  So off we went, shelled out the big bucks for the tickets, and even bigger bucks for the crappy popcorn, fountain pop, and a kit-katt bar.

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I had written a few pages and found that I was rambling, so I deleted everything up til that line…  I’ll get right to it…

I completely accept that Eli may have been guided by “The Hand of God”… even when it IS revealed that he’s somehow blind.  His mission is to protect that Bible, and if God gives him the ability to kick some serious ass, then great.  But what I CAN’T figure out is why we don’t see that he’s blind along the way.  Yeah, I realize that would ruin the surprise, but throughout the movie there are times when his sunglasses are off.. do his eyes ever look “grey” or “dead” like they do at the end?  Did he go blind along the way?  No, I don’t think so.  He’s able to read the brail bible, so he’s more than likely blind at the beginning of the journey.  Unless I’m missing something (and I might very well be… if so, please tell me!) it’s almost like he just suddenly becomes blind at the end. Yes, there are instances where he relies on his sense of smell… if he has lost the ability to see, then the other senses would become more aware.  I understand that.  But it’s the eyes that bother me.  They don’t LOOK to be blind during any part of the movie, except conveniently at the end.

And as for Mila Kunis’ character… what was the point of her?  Really.. c’mon now…  Eye candy?  Comic relief?  The story could have progressed quite nicely without her.  If she was necessary to advance the storyline while Eli was still in town, fine… he’s a holier man than most, and refused to take advantage of her…  but that’s it.  I just didn’t see the need for her at all.  And the final scene where she straps on weapons and prepares to walk home like some battle-hardened warrior princess…  Oh please…   It just didn’t fit.

Argh..  I normally don’t care about gaping holes in movie plots… I usually just accept things at face value because it’s entertainment.  I strap myself in for the ride, and I either like it, or I don’t.. based on whatever emotion I feel at the end.  I don’t try to analyze every little thing, and it actually bothers me that this movie didn’t just roll off of me as pure entertainment.

Still.. I liked it.  I just really could have used an explanation of Eli’s “sudden” blindness.  Mila?  Well… I could have gotten over that part…  but the blindness?

I think I’ll have to get this when it comes out on DVD and pay closer attention.

Curious to know if you have any blood pumping through that cold heart of yours?  Go see Extraordinary Measures.  If you walk out of there without feeling anything, then chances are good that you’re beyond hope.

Brendan Fraser is a Dad trying to save two of his young children who have Pompe Disease, a rare genetic disorder.  Harrison Ford is the somewhat eccentric scientist, whose life’s work on the disease appears to hold the most promise… at least in theory.  Together they form an interesting partnership.

I’ll admit, I had never even heard of Pompe Disease until this movie.  Like I’m sure many people did, I went and looked it up shortly afterward.  It’s quite an amazing story.

And you just might learn something about yourself…

As I was driving home last week, I heard the DJ mention that “Twitter” was crowned the Word of the Year for 2009.  ["Google" took home the top award for Word of the Decade].  So as I prepared to write a short blog post about this, I turned to the Word of the Decade’s search engine and discovered just as many page one references to “Twitter” as there were to another supposedly-popular word.  And what word was that?

“Unfriend”.

That’s a word that I don’t think that I have ever used in my life.  While neither of these words were even real words a couple of years ago, the popularity of social networking has given life to a whole new breed of language.  It would be difficult to argue that “Twitter” doesn’t deserve a mention for top words of 2009.  I’m not so sure about “unfriend” but I suspect that if you asked a younger generation of internet users (especially those with Facebook pages), “unfriend” probably doesn’t appear as out of place.

But for me, “Twitter” is definitely it.

The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie in the theatre over the summer.  I tried to go see it, but in a blink of an eye, it was gone.

Now I know why.

I really love Jeremy Piven’s character in Entourage, Ari.  In my opinion, he makes the show what it is.  I remember him saying in an interview “If you like Ari, then you’ll like this movie”.  Well…  not exactly.  I fully understood that his character would NOT be Ari, and yes, there IS a resemblance… but it’s the rest of the movie that doesn’t live up to my expectations.  One of the guys at work saw it, and told me that it was horrible.  But he also hates Entourage, so I wasn’t really putting a lot of stock in his opinion.

Maybe I should have.

I dunno.. it’s not that it’s horrible, because it isn’t.  It’s just that the laughs are so few and far between, which is a shame, because the movie is full of actors who are generally quite funny.  You’ll recognize people from The Daily Show and The Office.  It certainly has potential..

It just falls really, REALLY flat…

Had a little bit of time to kill the other day, and figured that maybe we could go see a movie.  It was 3pm.  Not exactly my usual movie-viewing time, and we didn’t have the luxury of waiting around.  If something fit into our schedule, then we’d have to either take it or leave it.  I had hoped that Avatar might available, but it wasn’t.  There was only one movie that was starting at that time, and I couldn’t really place it by the name alone.  Brothers.

It wasn’t until I walked back outside to view the poster that I realized I had seen the movie trailer for this a few times, and that it seemed worth while.

Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal play brothers leading very different lives.  I actually thought that they cast those two quite well.  It wasn’t a stretch to believe that they could be brothers.  Nathalie Portman plays the wife who tries to hold her family together when her husband (Maguire) doesn’t come back from a tour in Afghanistan as planned.  This is sooo not a Padmé Amidala role.  It was quite refreshing to see her acting.

I can remember hearing something about Tobey Maguire having to “decompress” from this role, and I can certainly understand why.  Some not-very-nice things happen to his character, and to be able to pull it off successfully (which I think he did) and then come out of that mental “place” can’t be an easy task.

I don’t think that this is a movie that I necessarily needed to see in the theatre.  It’s not like it required a big screen for visual effects, or anything like that.  But I am glad that I saw it when I did.  It’s not cheery.  It’s probably not going to make you walk out of there laughing.  But it should make you think.  Make you think about what makes a family, what holds two people together, and what people are capable of doing.. the good and the bad..

I wouldn’t rush out to see it before it disappears from the theatre, but keep it in mind when you see it on the shelf of your local movie rental place in a few months.