My birthday is Gun Day
My day started out with dental work. A tune-up, shaving off some high spots on the composite fillings I got a week ago and filling in a chip on same. I went and saw Kick Ass, described below. I bought Borderlands for my Xbox. Then came home, called some people, and sipped PBR for a bit. The world was my birthday party today. The PSU student neighbors were having a grill party, complete with Bud Light flag streamers. They were playing a weird alternating mix of hip-hop and country. When I last came inside, they'd had John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" blaring. A couple of homeless guys were having a loud, raspy conversation on the back stoop of the business building across the shared backyard. The late afternoon sun was shining. It was neither warm nor cold. It was a good day.
I'm a little biased on Kick Ass. A coworker of mine was a big comics fan, and he'd let me know whenever a new issue came out, and nearly bounce off the walls describing it. Apparently, it was a solo, labor of love project from a guy who had other stuff he had to work on, and so he only put out issues as time allowed. When the movie deal happened, my coworker threw a happy fanfit. So I was looking for it, and I knew it would have a good story. It exceeded expectations.
The direction in Kick Ass is simply aces. I say this for a lot of reasons, but one jumps out. I will not give spoilers, but that scene where Hitgirl stares at the cups and Kickass is cleaning himself up in the mirror, it almost made me want to cry for the good place this film will help to take future real-world hero films, and American films in general. Imagine you're in a theater, alone but for the director, watching the film. In other films, during this scene, the director might be standing in the row ahead of you, pointing his finger at your face, spraying saliva and shouting, "THIS IS HEAVY! DO YOU SEE HOW HEAVY THIS IS?!!" With this film, he's off to your right, a row back, seated. When the scene comes up, you look over, and he makes eye contact for a second. He looks down and rubs his brow, hard, that way you do when you're trying to control a reaction. He pauses, exhales hard through his nose, once, then looks up and continues watching. That's how the scene feels.
As for the action? The Hitgirl scenes are just relentless. She's like a little monkey with guns. Now, I've talked to a couple of folks today who had the impression that this was one of those films where kids play superhero and it's all cute and harmless. No. The 11-year-old girl has the biggest headcount of anyone in the film, by a huge margin. Here, dig this character-specific trailer.
My biggest complaint is how slow things move in the beginning. Small price to pay.
Also, I finally bought Borderlands for my Xbox 360. I'm glad I didn't shell out for a new copy when it first came out, but it's definitely worth what I paid for it. I played some multiplayer tonight with copiousedits and noisegoth. More fun with guns and killing things.
Regarding getting older, I seriously do not care these days. I might care again when I hit 37. For now, things all run together, like in a tasty soup.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna play some more Borderlands before I go to bed.
I'm a little biased on Kick Ass. A coworker of mine was a big comics fan, and he'd let me know whenever a new issue came out, and nearly bounce off the walls describing it. Apparently, it was a solo, labor of love project from a guy who had other stuff he had to work on, and so he only put out issues as time allowed. When the movie deal happened, my coworker threw a happy fanfit. So I was looking for it, and I knew it would have a good story. It exceeded expectations.
The direction in Kick Ass is simply aces. I say this for a lot of reasons, but one jumps out. I will not give spoilers, but that scene where Hitgirl stares at the cups and Kickass is cleaning himself up in the mirror, it almost made me want to cry for the good place this film will help to take future real-world hero films, and American films in general. Imagine you're in a theater, alone but for the director, watching the film. In other films, during this scene, the director might be standing in the row ahead of you, pointing his finger at your face, spraying saliva and shouting, "THIS IS HEAVY! DO YOU SEE HOW HEAVY THIS IS?!!" With this film, he's off to your right, a row back, seated. When the scene comes up, you look over, and he makes eye contact for a second. He looks down and rubs his brow, hard, that way you do when you're trying to control a reaction. He pauses, exhales hard through his nose, once, then looks up and continues watching. That's how the scene feels.
As for the action? The Hitgirl scenes are just relentless. She's like a little monkey with guns. Now, I've talked to a couple of folks today who had the impression that this was one of those films where kids play superhero and it's all cute and harmless. No. The 11-year-old girl has the biggest headcount of anyone in the film, by a huge margin. Here, dig this character-specific trailer.
My biggest complaint is how slow things move in the beginning. Small price to pay.
Also, I finally bought Borderlands for my Xbox 360. I'm glad I didn't shell out for a new copy when it first came out, but it's definitely worth what I paid for it. I played some multiplayer tonight with copiousedits and noisegoth. More fun with guns and killing things.
Regarding getting older, I seriously do not care these days. I might care again when I hit 37. For now, things all run together, like in a tasty soup.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna play some more Borderlands before I go to bed.