White Christmas & Amusements
First off, here's how much snow we got yesterday to set up the white Christmas we have had today:
From the front...
...and here's the backyard. I'm sure this doesn't compare to the snowfall a lot of other folks have experienced lately, but I thought either way I should capture what we got so that we can revel in the moment. =)
And now, some quick entertainment links:
Straight no chaser (a men's a cappella group) sings an amusing range of Christmas songs with a few surprises injected.
(from skreidle) The Enterprise can swim! RC model "flies" underwater.
Next up- my movie reviews of films both current and quite old:
Sherlock Holmes
First off I will tell you that the only Doyle work I read was Hound of the Baskervilles, so I have little with which to compare the film. In any case, my Wife and I found it to be witty, believable, fast-paced, well-written, and action-packed...a great mix of everything you would want to see in a movie of this type. 8/10
Avatar
Pretty cool; good animation/cinematography, good casting and writing- other than the earth-worship tree-hugger crap injected into the core of the movie- and long but mostly worthwhile. 7/10
District 9
This movie is not exactly what I expected it to be at first, but eventually plot progression and not-quite-spoon-fed foreshadowing gave you a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. I did feel that some of the action (violence) at points became rather gratuitous or at least repetitive, but the heart of the story really does give us something to think about. 7/10
Silent Hill
Seemed okay to me, as someone who's never played any of the video games. Not too scary, a bit of a weird plot, sorta middle-of-the-road as a movie overall. 6/10
Munich
Really, really cool movie. That it's based on actual events makes it even more compelling for me. Highly, highly recommended. 8/10
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
On par with the original; a chilling and thought-provoking tale. Definitely a lot "cleaner" than its predecessor, could be recommended for almost anyone. 8/10
Day of the Dead
Really ridiculous, but really fun- and not just because it's a zombie movie. I don't like Romero's trend of making zombies out to be "evolvable" creatures, and here's where that starts to begin...despite that, I found it at least passable if not predictable. 6/10
Virus
Oh my, what a horrific movie- and I don't mean that in a good way. I still can't understand what the point of this movie is supposed to have been aside from the pretty obvious message of "don't succumb to greed and sell out your friends." This movie could've been so much more, but they decided to capitalize on gratuitous gore and violence instead (which I'd normally approve of if the movie actually had substance apart from all that). 5/10
Cloverfield
Way over-rated garbage (and that's not even counting the "viral marketing" campaign leading up to its release). They either forgot about the audience when they wrote the inane dialogue, stupid characters, and the concept of "amateur (or, "realistic") camera handling" in forming this abomination, or they just decided to dismiss the audience entirely and said "here's what we're gonna show you; a somewhat-cool story formed and fleshed out by the intellectual equivalent of finger-painting, and you're gonna put up with and like it!" Simply put, it's bad "reality" TV meets bad monster movie. No way bub, I'm not buying. 5/10
Brainscan
A really unexpected sci-fi/horror/thriller of adequate quality. Kinda makes me think of The Lawnmower Man and The 13th Floor, but that might just be me. I think it's pretty interesting as a whole, though the dated technology demonstrated in the movie should make one chuckle. 6/10
Lastly, I am now playing Left 4 Dead 2 (video contains gore, violence, and extremely high levels of awesomeness for people who are sensitive to that stuff) and thoroughly enjoying it! Better in almost every way from the original. 9/10
Hope everyone has had a merry Christmas!
God is good. That is all.
From the front...
...and here's the backyard. I'm sure this doesn't compare to the snowfall a lot of other folks have experienced lately, but I thought either way I should capture what we got so that we can revel in the moment. =)
And now, some quick entertainment links:
Straight no chaser (a men's a cappella group) sings an amusing range of Christmas songs with a few surprises injected.
(from skreidle) The Enterprise can swim! RC model "flies" underwater.
Next up- my movie reviews of films both current and quite old:
Sherlock Holmes
First off I will tell you that the only Doyle work I read was Hound of the Baskervilles, so I have little with which to compare the film. In any case, my Wife and I found it to be witty, believable, fast-paced, well-written, and action-packed...a great mix of everything you would want to see in a movie of this type. 8/10
Avatar
Pretty cool; good animation/cinematography, good casting and writing- other than the earth-worship tree-hugger crap injected into the core of the movie- and long but mostly worthwhile. 7/10
District 9
This movie is not exactly what I expected it to be at first, but eventually plot progression and not-quite-spoon-fed foreshadowing gave you a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. I did feel that some of the action (violence) at points became rather gratuitous or at least repetitive, but the heart of the story really does give us something to think about. 7/10
Silent Hill
Seemed okay to me, as someone who's never played any of the video games. Not too scary, a bit of a weird plot, sorta middle-of-the-road as a movie overall. 6/10
Munich
Really, really cool movie. That it's based on actual events makes it even more compelling for me. Highly, highly recommended. 8/10
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
On par with the original; a chilling and thought-provoking tale. Definitely a lot "cleaner" than its predecessor, could be recommended for almost anyone. 8/10
Day of the Dead
Really ridiculous, but really fun- and not just because it's a zombie movie. I don't like Romero's trend of making zombies out to be "evolvable" creatures, and here's where that starts to begin...despite that, I found it at least passable if not predictable. 6/10
Virus
Oh my, what a horrific movie- and I don't mean that in a good way. I still can't understand what the point of this movie is supposed to have been aside from the pretty obvious message of "don't succumb to greed and sell out your friends." This movie could've been so much more, but they decided to capitalize on gratuitous gore and violence instead (which I'd normally approve of if the movie actually had substance apart from all that). 5/10
Cloverfield
Way over-rated garbage (and that's not even counting the "viral marketing" campaign leading up to its release). They either forgot about the audience when they wrote the inane dialogue, stupid characters, and the concept of "amateur (or, "realistic") camera handling" in forming this abomination, or they just decided to dismiss the audience entirely and said "here's what we're gonna show you; a somewhat-cool story formed and fleshed out by the intellectual equivalent of finger-painting, and you're gonna put up with and like it!" Simply put, it's bad "reality" TV meets bad monster movie. No way bub, I'm not buying. 5/10
Brainscan
A really unexpected sci-fi/horror/thriller of adequate quality. Kinda makes me think of The Lawnmower Man and The 13th Floor, but that might just be me. I think it's pretty interesting as a whole, though the dated technology demonstrated in the movie should make one chuckle. 6/10
Lastly, I am now playing Left 4 Dead 2 (video contains gore, violence, and extremely high levels of awesomeness for people who are sensitive to that stuff) and thoroughly enjoying it! Better in almost every way from the original. 9/10
Hope everyone has had a merry Christmas!
God is good. That is all.