MadMup.com

It's actually been a very long time since I wrote a game review. Too long.

After seeing the Iron Man movie on opening day, I was pumped enough to go rent the videogame. While everyone else in the known universe was playing Grand Theft Auto IV, I was flying around and catching missiles. To each his own. I had to actually rent the game a second time to get all the way through it, but did finally have success.

My review of the game is here.

And if you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to go by yourself, I'd go see it again. Totally.

Labels: game review, movies

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It's really not my intent to turn this blog into an "all movies, all the time" format, but I feel it is my duty to tell you that the official trailer is out for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and that you can view it here.





Consider this my Valentine's Day gift to you.

Labels: movies

5 comments

This Saturday marks a first for me. Sure, I've seen all the Star Wars movies before, and several times at that. But this Saturday will be the first time I'll watch them all in a row. To make this occasion slightly less nerdy, I've invited other people over to watch them with me. If you're reading this, consider yourself invited.

I realize that it will be a relatively small number of people who attend this, and I also realize that the number of people who come for all six movies will be even smaller. That's why I've made a handy little timeline for the day:

1. The Phantom Menace: 7:00 a.m.
2. Attack of the Clones: 9:21 a.m.
3. Revenge of the Sith: 12:03 p.m.
4. A New Hope: 2:27 p.m.
5. The Empire Strikes Back: 4:36 p.m
6. Return of the Jedi: 6:48 p.m.

There's a 5-minute break between each movie, with a 20-minute break scheduled before the start of Episode III. The projected end time is 9:02 p.m.

I toyed briefly with the idea of including the Clone Wars in the lineup, but that made an already-long day even longer, and I figured I was pushing my luck as it was.

A couple of notes about the day:

• I will do everything in my power to stick to the timetable, believe you me.
• I'm pretty sure there will be discussion during the viewings. Our resident Star Wars historian is planning to be there, and I'm sure we will all learn a thing or two :)
• There's wireless Internet available at my place, so if you need to bring your laptop and do some work to make yourself feel better about spending the day watching Star Wars, feel free.
• I'm thinking pizza for lunch (that's the 20-minute break), so bring a couple of bucks for that.
• I will provide soda.
• Hey, bring some snacks with you, that'd be cool! If we snack enough, we won't notice that I didn't schedule a 20-minute supper break.
• I do have two cats, so drug yourself up if you're allergic.
• I've been told my apartment is chilly, so you might want to dress accordingly.
• There isn't a whole lot of seating, so if you've got a beanbag or a camp chair or something, feel free to bring that along. When I buy a house, I'll make sure the theater room seats 50, but for now this is pretty much what I have.

Don't let the structuredness fool you - I think it's going to be a fun time for those who show up. A big screen TV, 5.1 surround sound, and the original versions of Episodes IV-VI... what's not to love?? Come for the ones you want to see - no need to stay all day if you don't want to see them all. That's why Phantom Menace is showing at 7:00 a.m. - if you oversleep, you aren't missing much.

And if this goes well, the next one will an all-day Lord of the Rings marathon.

Labels: career class, geekery, movies

12 comments

I just got back from Spider-Man 3.

Hmm.

The parts they did right they did very right - Venom and Sandman were spot-on, for instance.

But the parts they did wrong? Ugh. I cringed way too many times for a Spider-Man movie.

Safe to say that 2 is still my favorite Spider-Man movie.

Labels: movies, superheroes

3 comments

Midnight showing of Spider-Man 3 on Thursday night? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

If so, tickets need to be purchased soon - like, tomorrow!

Let me know if you need a ticket (and will pay me back!) and I'll make a run tomorrow evening.




EDIT: I've only heard from ONE person so far, and I KNOW that can't be right. Are your internets broken? It's Spider-Man!

EDIT #2: Wow. Who knew that people weren't up for midnight showings of awesome movies anymore? Regardless! Those of us going will have a blast! The rest of you will be jealous!

Labels: movies

14 comments

I like to see things being built. It’s fascinating to me to see how all the parts fit together to make a whole. I’ve been in the local Subaru plant and I saw the Corvette plant in Kentucky, and the whole process of fitting things together that were designed to fit together makes me happy.

(Side note: I think this is why I thought Voltron was so cool back in the day – all those giant lion-robots fitting together to make one huge robot?!? Awesome! Of course, I’ve since realized Voltron is anime and therefore awful, but at the time I was distracted by the shiny fitting-together robotitude of it all.)

(Further side note: This is also why I like to put together the “build it yourself” furniture like desks and bookcases that come in a flat box. It’s designed to go together and when it does, it activates the “Yay!” center in my brain. (That’s not the scientific name, but my Latin’s a little rusty.))

I particularly like to watch buildings go up – not the day to day business, that’s kind of boring. But driving by a building project every so often and seeing the progress or getting to tour a building before it’s completely done? I love that. It amazes me to think how much time, effort, and money goes into those projects. I’m a little envious of architects and engineers, even though I’d never be able to do either job. Their jobs are like watch-making on a grander scale – all the pieces have to fit together exactly right, or there’ll be trouble.

There are a few big building projects going on around town right now – a couple of new hospitals, talk of one or two more Starbucks (bringing our total to somewhere around… 500, I think), and even a new community center our church is building. The ground is barely broken on one hospital, the other is at the “skeletal beams in place” stage, and the community center is mostly closed in and just needs the internal stuff done.

Corporations like McDonald’s and Starbucks seem to be able to put up a new building in no time at all. One minute there’s a “Coming Soon!” sign and the next minute you’re getting your hazelnut steamer or Filet o’ Fish.

Different types of buildings in different areas are designed to withstand or accommodate specific circumstances. Skyscrapers are built to allow for being swayed by the wind. Homes along the coasts are designed to better weather hurricanes. Homes in the Midwest have basements because of tornadoes. Even igloos take the environment into account.

But no matter how much planning goes into a building, there’s one eventuality that can’t be protected against:

Superheroes.

I think we can all agree that we’re thankful for superheroes. If a guy like Juggernaut or Galactus comes to town, you want a Spider-Man or a Wolverine or a Fantastic Four around to take care of it. I mean, what are you gonna do about a guy bullets bounce off or who can shoot electricity at you? Not much. Hide, probably.

People see these things coming and they can get out of the way. It’s the buildings that take the brunt of it. Villains are constantly blowing buildings up, and when they aren’t, they’re barreling into them in some sort of destructive vehicle, or, worse, just throwing superheroes through them. No one said being a superhero would be easy, so you expect this sort of thing to happen. The creators of the “Death of Superman” storyline were inspired to come up with the character Doomsday by the image of Metropolis with a wide swath of destruction through the middle of it. A dude who can kill Superman can also take down pretty much any building around, I guess.

But the heroes are just as bad as the villains in the property damage department. In the process of saving lives and protecting Earth, there’s bound to be some incidental harm.

In Superman Returns, there’s a plane headed for certain disaster until Superman shows up (or, if you will, returns) to take care of it. In the process of trying to bring it under control, he rips a wing of the plane off. Sure, the plane’s a lost cause at this point, so it’s not such a big deal that it’s losing a wing, but when Superman lets go of that wing to grab the fuselage of the plane, where does that wing go? What does it land on? Superman finally gets control of the plane and is able to set it safely down in a baseball stadium – again, no one’s faulting him for messing up the infield with the plane, but when it’s down and the people are out, he flies off. Does he come back later to remove the plane from the field? How do they get the plane out of there?

In Batman Begins, Batman’s in the process of rescuing Rachel, who is fast succumbing to the Scarecrow’s poison. He’s driving his big old tank of a Batmobile, and that’s garnered him some attention from the police force. They’ve got him cornered at the top of a parking garage, pretty much leaving Batman with one option: bust through the wall and start driving on rooftops. Structural questions aside (can a roof really support a car that big?), the Batmobile is tearing up tiles, knocking things over, and generally making a mess of things. Further along in the chase, police cars are flipping over and crashing. But in the end, he rescues Rachel and saves her life, so all the damage is worth it, right? We never see it, but I suspect Batman, as Bruce Wayne, donates money from the millions he has to various funds that work to repair the damage he’s done as Batman. If he doesn’t, he ought to.

Pretty much every superhero I can think of does damage to structures in the area. Spider-Man, Hulk, The Tick… the list goes on. I think an awareness committee needs to be formed. After all, just because you can drop a building on someone’s head doesn’t mean you should.

Labels: movies, superheroes

14 comments

Last night was a big night: I watched my first movie of the year.

Sure, that might not seem like a big deal to you, but last year I watched 371 movies, an average of 31 a month. I decided to try going a month without watching any movies, you know, just to see. It went fine. I watched a bit more TV and read a bit more and.. other stuff, I guess.

But yesterday was a new month, so I thought I'd watch a movie. Since it was so momentous, it couldn't be just any movie, it had to be an awesome movie.

It had to be Batman.

It also kind of felt like this was the sort of event that needed to be shared with people. I put forth the idea of having some people over and was encouraged to do so. An announcement was made, plans were put in motion, snacks were purchased, the whole deal. And, wonder of wonders, seven people from the Career Class at church showed up.

I like to think that many of you who read the site here like to do so because my foibles and quirks make you feel better about your own, either by making yours feel less severe in comparison or make you feel less alone in your similar ones. To that end, I feel I should confess the following:

I talk during movies.

Constantly. Non-stop. And the thing is, I hate that I do it! It's always the stupidest stuff! Here are the gems I subjected them to last night:

• The guy playing Gordon and the guy playing Alfred are the only two actors in all four of the Batman movies.
• She was married to Mick Jagger.
• Hey, Wendy, does his tie go with that shirt?
• How old were you all in 1989? (The most surprising answer: "Five." Seriously!)
• Best. Batmobile. Ever.
• That right there is when a million boys fell in love with Vicki Vale. (When she showed up onscreen.)
• Here's what was wrong with the sequel, Batman Returns: 1) Batman TWO should have been about Two-Face! Hello! 2) Too many villians, too much going on. 3) More origins were messed with.
• He had that light installed in the Batmobile just in case someone was going to be sitting in the passenger's seat and he needed to blind them.
• Watch his utility belt when he looks up at the helicopter - see it move? Why didn't they reshoot that?
• I hate this part because it messes up the whole origin of Batman! The Joker DID NOT kill Bruce Wayne's parents!!!
• This movie is just to get you in the mood for Prince in the Super Bowl halftime show.
• Batman wouldn't have killed The Joker - it's what he does! He spares villians! He makes it a point not to kill villians!
• Iconic hero shot coming right up! Wait for it... there!

See? See what I mean about it being inane? And this is just a small sampling.

I need some sort of help.

A big thanks to Matt, Marshall, Wendy, Melissa, Lee, Jeannie, and Eric for coming to my inaugural movie night and for not killing me.

Labels: friends, movies, quirks

19 comments

Snakes on a Plane came out on DVD today, but I didn't buy it. There are lots of reasons not to - it's violent, it's foul, it's gory, it probably won't hold up to repeat viewings, yadda yadda yadda - but there was only one real reason I didn't buy it:

I didn't have to.

The fellow over at Snakes on a Blog put up a post saying New Line had given him ten copies of the DVD to give away to his readers, so he had people submit an "If I were on the flight..." story of 500 words or less, with the top ten stories winning a copy. I was "Winner #3," a place I was more than comfortable with. There were about 40 entries submitted, so I had a 1 in 4 chance at winning. Pretty good odds, so not really an entry for the "Big Win!" column. Still, winning stuff's always fun and I haven't done much of that in my life.

Anyway, here's my entry. You don't have to have seen Snakes on a Plane to "get" it, but there is another movie you will have needed to see. And if you haven't seen that movie, you need to get crackin', as it's a classic.

I am tired – bone-tired. This trip hadn’t gone like I’d planned and my future wasn’t looking so bright. This time yesterday I was looking forward to going home, but after the voicemail I got last night… well, now I’m not so sure what I’ll find there. If my key still works in the lock I’ll take it as a good sign.

I stow my carry-on bag in the overhead compartment and sit down. I don’t like aisle seats, I like windows seats even less, and just thinking about the idea of sitting in-between two other people makes me claustrophobic. The fellow in the brown leather jacket by the window is already asleep, by the look of his fedora pulled low over his face. I’m jealous, as I know I’ll never be able to get to sleep, even as tired as I am. After all this time, I am still hyper-aware of every noise and movement, sure that every one signals the plane’s doom, and there’s no way to shut my brain off and fall asleep. It’s days like today that I seriously consider taking up drinking.

I’m halfway done with my crossword puzzle when there’s some sort of commotion up by the bathroom. We’ve been in the air for a while, so I figure it’s just someone feeling cooped up and needing to vent a little. Then I notice the lady on the other side of the plane slumped over in a weird-enough way to suggest she isn’t sleeping. I’m about to call for a flight attendant, when the lights go out. I’ve got an LED flashlight in my bag, so I stand up to get it.

When I open the overhead compartment, something falls on my shoulder. I figure it’s a strap to someone’s bag, so I pick it up to put it back in the compartment. It’s right about the time the end of the strap is on eye level that I realize it’s no strap. Staring me in the face is a green mamba, today’s answer to 32 Down. I’m surprised enough to be seeing a snake on a plane that when it hisses and strikes, I barely have time to dodge and it’s not enough. I feel the fangs sink into my ear. And then again into my cheek. And then my neck.

I fall into my seat, stunned that this is happening and no one seems to notice. I can’t speak, and I’m flailing my arms around like an amateur semaphorist, and in the process I smack my sleeping seatmate fairly soundly. He comes to with a “Hey, buddy…,” sees the snake attached to my neck and scrambles to flatten himself against the window.

“Why snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? Anything else,” he says.

He reaches under his jacket to get something, and I have just enough time to wonder how he got that bullwhip through security before everything goes black.

Labels: movies

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It's generally difficult for me to come up with "Top Five" lists on my own. If given a list of things, I can put them in order, but I can't pick from, say, a vast field of movies and pick my favorite five. My default answer to "What's your favorite movie?" is Batman (the Tim Burton one), most likely because I've seen it more than any other movie (and because, well, it's awesome). But rounding out the rest of the list is difficult. Ghost Busters, Garden State, Unforgiven -- how do you rank things so vastly different?

So I tend to speak in nonspecifics - "This movie's in my top three," "that song's in my current top ten" - that kind of thing.

This movie's definitely in my top three: Grosse Pointe Blank. John Cusack movies are in their own category (reference: Better Off Dead), as he's got this certain character that he does/is that's infinitely cooler than any other movie characters out there. I've heard it explained this way: Girls want to be with him, guys want to be him. I've heard rumors he's not so cool in real life, but let's stick with Martin Blank, Lane Meyer, and Lloyd Dobler here, shall we?

(There might be spoilers ahead, I don't know. You've been sorta-warned.)

In Grosse Pointe Blank Cusack plays Martin Blank, a hit man who goes to his 10-year high school reunion. He's in town to do a job, but he's also wrestling with seeing the girl he left on Prom Night ten years ago without so much as a "by your leave." On top of that he's got competing hitmen trying to kill him and some government guys after him, too. He's been kind of down lately and has been kind of seeing a shrink, a guy who really doesn't want to talk to him because he's afraid of Martin.

Debi (the girl) finds out he's a hitman after stumbling across him over a recently deceased "bad guy," and any sort of "we might be okay even after the ten year absence" thing is quickly destroyed. But then Martin goes on to save her father's life and the end of the movie sees them heading off into the sunset together. Too pat? Maybe. Unbelievable? Sure. Hoped for? You bet.

I love the movie for many reasons. Cusack, of course, and the traditional Cusack snappy dialogue. The humor. The juxtapositions. The music.

But it hit me recently what I liked most about it: the redemption. Here's this guy who kills people for money. He loses his taste for it (not quite the same thing as "realizes it's wrong," but, hey) and wants to pick up where he left off with the girl he loved. Not a chance, she says. In fact, after she finds out what he does and she is storming out, he tries to call her back. She whips around and says very deliberately, "You don't get to have me." Translation: You messed up, and because you did, I'm forever out of your reach. It's a powerful, sad moment. Of course, by the end of the movie things are different, but right then it's big. She leaves and Martin lays on the bed, knowing he's out, he's done, he has no hope of ever being with her.

Then he does something heroic, saves the day... and gets another chance. I love that. Sure, we don't know what happens after the movie ends (can we get a sequel already?!?) and he could go on to mess the whole thing up in normal, everyday ways that people mess up relationships, but he gets that second chance and to me that's awesome.

I've recently had the opportunity to re-meet people I used to know "way back when." They've been happy to see me, and it's weird. I kind of feel like I'm getting that second chance myself. And I see how they've done since I last saw them (and some of them are doing really, really well) and it reminds me of the reunion - Martin's going through this great crisis of life and he's meeting happy mothers, succesful realtors, near-death experience survivors - all these other people, and it throws into contrast what he's been doing the last ten years.

At one point during the reunion, he sits down at a table with a friend from high school who has her very young baby with her. She asks Martin to hold him while she gets something from her purse. Martin initially balks, but then holds the kid on the mother's further insistence. There's a good minute or two of Martin looking at this baby, and you sense he's realizing he might want to settle down and have one of these himself (which would, of course, require him getting out of the killing people business).

The baby's mother at one point asks Martin, "So, how's your life?"

"In progress," he responds. He's right on the edge of big changes and he senses that things could maybe turn out right.

"In progress." I like that. It's going on and I'm doing stuff and who knows how it'll end?

"In progress" indeed.

Labels: life, movies

4 comments

Just got back from the late show of Paycheck. Thoughts from me:

I don't hate Ben Affleck, I just don't think he's a very good actor. He does alright. I'm one of the few people I know that liked Daredevil.

I have seen some John Woo movies, but not enough to recognize his visual signatures, so I didn't go into it with a whole lot of preconceived notions on how it should be.

I expected it to be Minority Report Lite. To a certain extent, it was.

I liked it. A fun action movie with enough turns to keep it interesting. Any time there's a movie set in the future, I can work up a pretty good dispension of disbelief, so I wasn't bothered with the impossibility of the technology. Ben plays a reverse engineer - someone who takes technology that other people have come up with and takes it apart to find out how they made it, then makes new (and hopefully better) stuff out of it. Because his jobs are so sensitive, he gets his memory wiped after each one, so he loses two months of his life, but he gains a pretty big paycheck out of the deal.

He gets offered the biggest paycheck of his life from a friend of his, but there's a catch - the memory wipe will erase three years of his life. For $92 million, Ben figures he'll do it.

Jump to the memory wipe. Ben goes to pick up his paycheck and finds out he's not only turned down the money, he's also sent himself 19 personal items (a paperclip, some hairspray, some ball bearings, etc.). At this point, intrigue ensues.

Uma Thurman plays the object of his affection for the three years he's working on the project. After the memory wipe, of course, he doesn't remember her, but she helps him all the same, and they seem to get along just fine.

This is definitely a sci-fi flick, but not enough that an action movie fan would be put off by it. There's one big motorcycle/car chase scene, but it won't make you stand up and yell "Woo!" Hey...it just hit me: John Woo is a famous action movie director....when you see an exciting action movie, you feel the urge to yell "Woo!"...it all makes sense to me now...

I really enjoyed this movie. I will most likely watch the DVD when it comes out, and that's more than I can say for some other movies...

Labels: movies

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