Pretty sweet movie. Now, I've never read the comic that it was based on, nor even knew that it was based on a comic until the DC Comics logo came up in the opening credits, so I can't say if the movie did it justice or not. But I would assume it did a pretty good job.
The movie was written by the guys who wrote the Matrix trilogy and the plot is a little reminiscent of it, although much more of a Brave New World theme that's been used so often in this genre. There are some pretty sweet fight scenes, but mostly these are over quickly and the movie relies on the story, the actors and the set design to really carry it. That being said, Natalie Portman and Stephen Rea do an incredible job as two of the leads in the movie. Hugo Weaving plays the main character, and does a great job with his voice, but his face is behind the Guy Fawkes mask the entire time so the voice is the only performance you really get.
"People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people."
The plot of the movie is basically a tyrannical oppressive government in the not too near future of England and a revolutionary bent on revenge who's goal is to bring down the government and wake the people up to what they have been tolerating all of these years. It's well written and well executed, and a definitely entertaining movie. It is, however, quite dark, so if that's not you're thing, you probably won't be too big of a fan.
Let's go with an 8 out of 10.
On a side note, the mask that V wears in the movie is a Guy Fawkes mask. Guy Fawkes was an Englishman who, in 1605, tried to blow up Parliament & King James I, but was caught before he was able. On Nov 5th (the day in which he was caught) there is now a celebration in the UK in which they burn bonfires and dummies of Guy Fawkes to celebrate his failure. Years ago they would also tie up live cats inside the dummies to mimic the scream of a person getting burned alive, but they don't do that any more. Probably thanks to PETA.
20 March 2006
17 March 2006
Happy St Paddy's Day!
Don't have much to say on this post. Last night went out to see one of my good friends Irish band play at a punk bar here in town - pretty crazy experience. While they were setting up there was way too loud crazy punk music going on in the house (not my first choice in listening...) and then they played a great set, took a break, and a punk band did a quick change over and played a set (I hung out outside with my friend during that set to save my ears from exploding) and then the Irish band took the stage once more.
Anyway, the whole point is that they have this song (it's an original, which I was completely impressed by) which says that everyone's Irish for a day. So Happy St Paddy's day to all of you, have fun tonight, but be safe, and drink a couple Guinness (is there a plural for Guinness? Guinnesses? Guinnessi?) for me.
Also, find at least some Irish music in your music collection and do a little jig to get yourself into the spirit.
On a similar note - a couple days ago, the archbishops in Chicago declared that since St Paddy's day falls on a Friday - and during Lent, if you're Catholic you're not allowed to eat meat on Fridays - this particular Friday it will be okay if you eat your traditional corned beef and cabbage. But if you do, you have to find some other way to repent and sacrifice today. So for all of you Irish Catholics out there, don't worry, go ahead and have that second helping of corned beef and feel no guilt about it. The archbishop says it's okay.
Anyway, the whole point is that they have this song (it's an original, which I was completely impressed by) which says that everyone's Irish for a day. So Happy St Paddy's day to all of you, have fun tonight, but be safe, and drink a couple Guinness (is there a plural for Guinness? Guinnesses? Guinnessi?) for me.
Also, find at least some Irish music in your music collection and do a little jig to get yourself into the spirit.
On a similar note - a couple days ago, the archbishops in Chicago declared that since St Paddy's day falls on a Friday - and during Lent, if you're Catholic you're not allowed to eat meat on Fridays - this particular Friday it will be okay if you eat your traditional corned beef and cabbage. But if you do, you have to find some other way to repent and sacrifice today. So for all of you Irish Catholics out there, don't worry, go ahead and have that second helping of corned beef and feel no guilt about it. The archbishop says it's okay.
16 March 2006
"Elizabethtown" movie review
Think "Garden State" mixed with "Almost Famous". Did you like those two movies? Then you'll like this. I loved those two movies and I loved this one as well. The soundtrack is great, the actors are great, and the movie just makes you feel good through the entire thing.
The cast is incredible. Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst do a great job in the leading roles, especially Orlando Bloom, but the supporting cast is great as well. Susan Sarandon, as usual, is great (anybody seen "Igby Goes Down"?) and Alec Baldwin, although not in the movie for very long at all, really nails his part.
The premise is simple enough, Orlando Bloom plays a young businessman in the shoe designing business who has just made this huge fiasco for his company, and he gets word that his dad just died. So his mom and his sister tell him he has to go out to Kentucky, where all of his dad's family lives, to pick up the body and bring it back to Oregon for cremation. He meets Kirsten Dunst on the way there and it goes from there. Outside of that, there are several things in the movie that just stood out to me and made me really like the movie in general. There's a pretty unique part with an exercise bike, an explanation by Alec Baldwin about just how much money 942 million dollars is, Freebird at a memorial service, but the best is the last 15 minutes which just made me happy for a couple days.
Definitely a movie to check out. 10 out of 10.
"Sadness is easier because its surrender. I say make time to dance alone with one hand waving free."
The cast is incredible. Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst do a great job in the leading roles, especially Orlando Bloom, but the supporting cast is great as well. Susan Sarandon, as usual, is great (anybody seen "Igby Goes Down"?) and Alec Baldwin, although not in the movie for very long at all, really nails his part.
The premise is simple enough, Orlando Bloom plays a young businessman in the shoe designing business who has just made this huge fiasco for his company, and he gets word that his dad just died. So his mom and his sister tell him he has to go out to Kentucky, where all of his dad's family lives, to pick up the body and bring it back to Oregon for cremation. He meets Kirsten Dunst on the way there and it goes from there. Outside of that, there are several things in the movie that just stood out to me and made me really like the movie in general. There's a pretty unique part with an exercise bike, an explanation by Alec Baldwin about just how much money 942 million dollars is, Freebird at a memorial service, but the best is the last 15 minutes which just made me happy for a couple days.
Definitely a movie to check out. 10 out of 10.
"Sadness is easier because its surrender. I say make time to dance alone with one hand waving free."
Washington DC
We arrived in DC late on Friday evening and were planning on staying until Monday afternoon. The last time I was in DC was probably six years ago and we did the whole tourist thing, but because of that I didn't get a really good feeling of the city part of it. This trip staying with my friend in her place along with the other six people she lives with definitely gave me a good feel of the city. We did a lot of tourist things as well, but we also ran some errands and ate at places that I'm sure 98% of the tourists who go to the city have never heard of. Here are some highlights:
Saturday morning several of us went out to brunch at the Colorado Kitchen (named that way because it is located on Colorado St.) Excellent fresh homemade doughnuts before a pretty spectacular waffle.
Saturday night there was a house party for our friends birthday and a lot of the people she has met through work were leaving, so there was a lot of dancing and eating and meeting a lot of really cool people. (Side note here - the six of the seven people living in this house - including our friend - work for non profits in the city - and all seven of them are extremely liberal and not the biggest fans of the current administration - so we all got along together pretty well.)
Sunday we got up and went to the Spy Museum which was pretty cool. A lot of spy gadgets - a replica of the Bond car from the last Bond movie - and then a whole tour of the history of spying from the time of Caesar to East & West Berlin to the current technology of spying with the internet and everything. Although curiously enough, there wasn't any mention of illegal wire tapping or any of the other points of spying going on in our government today... The souvenir store at the Spy Museum was pretty sweet, and although I had no need of anything - if I had a lot of money that I had no need of, I think I would have spent an awful lot there.
Sunday night we all just hung out at the house and order Thai food and watched John Stewart rock the Oscars. It was the first time I watched the entire thing from the very beginning of the red carpet to the end of the awards show - and I think it will probably be the last time also. The awards show is fun, but I'm really not into seeing what all of the stars are wearing.
Monday we went downtown looking for a place for brunch. After asking a city employee we were directed to "The Waffle Shop - Chinese & American Diner" right across from the Ford Theatre and next door to the house where Lincoln died. It was an experience. Pretty good food (although none of us tried the Chinese - we all got their waffle special) but the experience alone was completely worth it. The next time you go to DC, have breakfast at The Waffle Shop. It was the first time I had ever had scrapple (I think its a patty of grits fried in animal fat. It tastes like some kind of meat - but it isn't.) and I think the last time.
Then it was a walk to the National Mall to the National Gallery where an exhibit was showing of Paul Cezanne. It was a huge exhibit (probably about 200 of his paintings) and many paintings that I had seen before in calendars, postcards, or what not. Much, much cooler seeing the actual painting a foot in front of your face. Then we wandered up to the Capitol building and saw the security guards milling about with their very large guns in full display, and then walked back home just in time to gather our stuff and catch the metro to the bus back to BWI airport. So easy. Why can't Denver get it together?
Great impromptu trip - and then it was back to work on Tuesday. I'm going to have to take more of these random long weekend trips to other cities.
Saturday morning several of us went out to brunch at the Colorado Kitchen (named that way because it is located on Colorado St.) Excellent fresh homemade doughnuts before a pretty spectacular waffle.
Saturday night there was a house party for our friends birthday and a lot of the people she has met through work were leaving, so there was a lot of dancing and eating and meeting a lot of really cool people. (Side note here - the six of the seven people living in this house - including our friend - work for non profits in the city - and all seven of them are extremely liberal and not the biggest fans of the current administration - so we all got along together pretty well.)
Sunday we got up and went to the Spy Museum which was pretty cool. A lot of spy gadgets - a replica of the Bond car from the last Bond movie - and then a whole tour of the history of spying from the time of Caesar to East & West Berlin to the current technology of spying with the internet and everything. Although curiously enough, there wasn't any mention of illegal wire tapping or any of the other points of spying going on in our government today... The souvenir store at the Spy Museum was pretty sweet, and although I had no need of anything - if I had a lot of money that I had no need of, I think I would have spent an awful lot there.
Sunday night we all just hung out at the house and order Thai food and watched John Stewart rock the Oscars. It was the first time I watched the entire thing from the very beginning of the red carpet to the end of the awards show - and I think it will probably be the last time also. The awards show is fun, but I'm really not into seeing what all of the stars are wearing.
Monday we went downtown looking for a place for brunch. After asking a city employee we were directed to "The Waffle Shop - Chinese & American Diner" right across from the Ford Theatre and next door to the house where Lincoln died. It was an experience. Pretty good food (although none of us tried the Chinese - we all got their waffle special) but the experience alone was completely worth it. The next time you go to DC, have breakfast at The Waffle Shop. It was the first time I had ever had scrapple (I think its a patty of grits fried in animal fat. It tastes like some kind of meat - but it isn't.) and I think the last time.
Then it was a walk to the National Mall to the National Gallery where an exhibit was showing of Paul Cezanne. It was a huge exhibit (probably about 200 of his paintings) and many paintings that I had seen before in calendars, postcards, or what not. Much, much cooler seeing the actual painting a foot in front of your face. Then we wandered up to the Capitol building and saw the security guards milling about with their very large guns in full display, and then walked back home just in time to gather our stuff and catch the metro to the bus back to BWI airport. So easy. Why can't Denver get it together?
Great impromptu trip - and then it was back to work on Tuesday. I'm going to have to take more of these random long weekend trips to other cities.
Baltimore trip
So a couple weekends ago my roommate and I made a trip out to Baltimore and Washington DC to see a couple friends. Here's some highlights:
-Thursday afternoon: pull into USAirport parking lot at 4:15. Flight leaves at 5:20... made it in perfect timing, although I don't think I'd like to test my luck that close again.
-Thursday evening: Flew Southwest Airlines - cool airline, they don't have assigned seats so you just basically sit wherever you want to, and since the flight wasn't full at all no one had to take a seat squeezed in the middle of two other people. We landed in Chicago (Midway Airport - another airport added to my list) at around 8:00, and had dinner at the airport version of Miller's Pub, a restaurant that I had been to in Chicago eight years earlier, and had pretty decent fried cod sandwich (although being in an airport it was nearly $10).
-Thursday night: Touched down at BWI right at midnight, walked out the door and looked down the row of buses just as our friend was pulling up - perfect timing once again. Then we drove over to her house - basically a three floor hallway - two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs (narrow stairway, only one person at a time), a 'living room' and kitchen on the main floor, and then storage and laundry downstairs. After taking the "tour" and talking for awhile we hit the sack, being pretty tired from the trip.
-Friday morning started with me being yelled at by a miniature parrot - not a parakeet - at 8:00AM (6:00 my time) until I got up, which is a lovely way to start the day. But then we got going earlier and got to see more of the city. Our first stop was to walk around Peabody Music Conservatory where my friend went for several years for violin & viola performance. Just outside the main building (there are only two) is the large monument and roundabout where a scene in "Enemy of the State" was filmed, so that was pretty cool. Then we walked down to the part of the harbor that all of the tourists go - you could tell by the Barnes & Noble and the Hard Rock Cafe.
During some other random walking around downtown with no real destination we ran across a couple of reporters from the Baltimore news station conducting an interview on the side of the street - so perhaps, we were in the background of a news segment on the increase of cost of living due to trying to bring in more business and make the downtown area a little more upscale. After walking around the downtown area a little more we stopped and had lunch at an amazing Nepalese buffet and then went down to the boathouse - our friend coaches college & high school crew - where they keep all of the skulls and checked them out. They are so much longer in person that you would expect them to be. Pretty cool. After that we drove around Baltimore for awhile and walked around Fells Point where I saw my first Coast Guard ship. That evening our friend from DC drove up and we all went out to dinner at the Waterfront Hotel (a funky pub/restaurant in Fells Point) where I accomplished my goal of eating crab cakes while I was in Maryland. After dinner my roommate & I drove with my friend back down to DC where she had to drop off her car and then caught the metro to her house in Columbia Heights.
next entry will pick up in Washington DC
-Thursday afternoon: pull into USAirport parking lot at 4:15. Flight leaves at 5:20... made it in perfect timing, although I don't think I'd like to test my luck that close again.-Thursday evening: Flew Southwest Airlines - cool airline, they don't have assigned seats so you just basically sit wherever you want to, and since the flight wasn't full at all no one had to take a seat squeezed in the middle of two other people. We landed in Chicago (Midway Airport - another airport added to my list) at around 8:00, and had dinner at the airport version of Miller's Pub, a restaurant that I had been to in Chicago eight years earlier, and had pretty decent fried cod sandwich (although being in an airport it was nearly $10).
-Thursday night: Touched down at BWI right at midnight, walked out the door and looked down the row of buses just as our friend was pulling up - perfect timing once again. Then we drove over to her house - basically a three floor hallway - two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs (narrow stairway, only one person at a time), a 'living room' and kitchen on the main floor, and then storage and laundry downstairs. After taking the "tour" and talking for awhile we hit the sack, being pretty tired from the trip.
-Friday morning started with me being yelled at by a miniature parrot - not a parakeet - at 8:00AM (6:00 my time) until I got up, which is a lovely way to start the day. But then we got going earlier and got to see more of the city. Our first stop was to walk around Peabody Music Conservatory where my friend went for several years for violin & viola performance. Just outside the main building (there are only two) is the large monument and roundabout where a scene in "Enemy of the State" was filmed, so that was pretty cool. Then we walked down to the part of the harbor that all of the tourists go - you could tell by the Barnes & Noble and the Hard Rock Cafe.
During some other random walking around downtown with no real destination we ran across a couple of reporters from the Baltimore news station conducting an interview on the side of the street - so perhaps, we were in the background of a news segment on the increase of cost of living due to trying to bring in more business and make the downtown area a little more upscale. After walking around the downtown area a little more we stopped and had lunch at an amazing Nepalese buffet and then went down to the boathouse - our friend coaches college & high school crew - where they keep all of the skulls and checked them out. They are so much longer in person that you would expect them to be. Pretty cool. After that we drove around Baltimore for awhile and walked around Fells Point where I saw my first Coast Guard ship. That evening our friend from DC drove up and we all went out to dinner at the Waterfront Hotel (a funky pub/restaurant in Fells Point) where I accomplished my goal of eating crab cakes while I was in Maryland. After dinner my roommate & I drove with my friend back down to DC where she had to drop off her car and then caught the metro to her house in Columbia Heights.
next entry will pick up in Washington DC
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