So, I'm finally getting around to watching this movie. I can't actually remember why I didn't bother to see it while it was in theaters. I mean, obviously, it's something I should have taken the time to see. But, for some odd reason or another, I didn't. Clearly, I don't always make the right decisions. But what else is new?
So, it's out on Blu-ray now. And, I have to say that I think Blu-ray was created specifically for westerns. I mean, wow. This movie looked so good. All I could do was bask in the glory that was this movie in high definition. I mean, Jessica Alba was really crazy hot in high def, but there's just something about the dirtiness and wildness of the frontier that just wins. I mean, everyone in this movie was covered in grime, all the time (with some of the most yellow teeth you'll ever lay eyes on). But, it was beautiful grime. Gorgeous, lovingly earned grime.
Also, it was a pretty good movie. With quite the cast, I might add. I had no idea that Alan Tudyk (that would be Wash from Firefly, or Steve the Pirate, if you prefer, I'll accept both names) was in it, as a veterinarian turned doctor. Or, for that matter, that Luke Wilson would be randomly screwing Chinese railroad workers. But, well, sometimes those small roles happen to go to cool people. And I appreciate it.
Anyways, it was a good movie. Clearly, it's pretty much the Christian Bale and Russell Crowe show. But, they put on quite a show. On a side note, Christian Bale is pretty much amazing. I seriously love his work. Every character he plays is so much more interesting than just about everybody else. Whether it's his take on Bruce Wayne confronting change and the responsibilities of the successful in Gotham, or a magician who's willing to dedicate his entire life towards his ultimate trick, or a guilt-ridden man incapable of sleeping, or even a failing rancher, too stubborn to admit defeat and who just wants to prove that he's worth something, Christian Bale blows me away.
I was pretty much ambivalent on Mr. Crowe's character. I kind of felt like all he had going for him was charisma (okay, obviously that's hardly nothing, but it didn't really excite me). Also, I couldn't relate to him that much and I'm not sure I appreciated the decisions he made at the end.
Music was good of course, but it was really the visuals that I fell in love with. Westerns have always been as much about the land as the people, and this movie got the balance just right. Some westerns (Dances With Wolves, I'm looking at you right now) care too much about the land and just put me to sleep. But, this movie doesn't celebrate the beauty of the land so much as it simply intoxicates the viewer with it. At the start of the movie, it's been a drought and everything is brown and dying. By the end, though, they're in the mountains, and it's starting to snow, in that way that it can only snow high up in the desert. With the big flakes that come down ever so slowly. In the distance, they can see the rain clouds over home, letting them know that there is already hope back that way, even if there is none in the direction they're going.
Sigh, it's hard not to dream of being a hero in such a land. Especially a lone hero. Against impossible odds. With just one statement to make. That, when nobody else was brave enough to walk Ben Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma, your Pa was willing to. That's the integrity of the wild west. Sacrificing yourself to make a statement for your young and impressionable son. Finally being someone in the eyes of your loved ones.
Man, I love westerns. Especially lonely westerns. Maybe I should go watch Unforgiven again to remind myself how ugly the west really was, that the dirty, grimy people weren't beautiful, and there were no statements to make. There was only being the lucky son of a bitch who got to walk away that time.
But, whatever, I'll keep enjoying the romantic view of the west, for now.
That is all.
Francis
PS- I almost forgot to be like everyone else in the entire world and comment on the fact that Ben Foster was pretty much awesome as Russell Crowe's right-hand man. He plays a really great evil minion character, apparently, considering his awesomeness in this as well as 30 Days of Night.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
New Amsterdam
So, now that Terminator is done, I thought I'd check out this show, New Amsterdam. Yeah, I'm not really sure why, considering I basically never like police-investigation-type-drama-thingies. I assume it has something to do with the main character being immortal. So, anyways, I checked it out. And, well, it's alright. I guess. Nothing special. I'll give it another week or two.
In any case, watching this show got me thinking. Having watched House, it's really hard to appreciate an asshole character who isn't actually an asshole. I mean, obviously House set the bar for being a likable asshole pretty high, but that doesn't mean that characters shouldn't make the attempt (Dr. Cox made a good attempt, but that heart of gold of his keeps working against him). I mean, seriously, we've got a main character who has been alive for centuries. By this time, he should basically be insufferable. He should just know everything and everyone and rub it in everyone else's faces. But, no, this immortal is too cool to make other people feel bad. And, well, as the viewer, that makes him kind of boring.
He's basically likable. He uses his vast database of human experience to find a way to connect with anyone he wants to connect with and uses them. I mean, the using them part is cool, but he doesn't make them feel stupid for it afterwards. The worst part is that he narrates his life with this whole cynical attitude and stuff, but he's not actually cynical. He likes people. The people who interact with him like him too. The people who have to follow him around all day start to get tired of him, but that counts for nothing.
So, yeah, I was kind of disappointed about that. I was kind of hoping for a main character who's more depressed and reckless than the one I got. I kind of get the sense that his character was that way like 50 years ago, but that he's started down the path to enlightenment already. And what's worse, the show seems to want us to know that. They've already told us that he's gone over 30 years without alcohol and we've met some ex-flame who could remember when he was incapable of being in a stable relationship.
But, it was just the first episode. He's still got plenty of time to get depressed and rediscover alcohol as a way to escape the burden of centuries of living. He's even got plenty of time to continue losing faith in humanity and himself, and to take that out on the people around him. So, I still have hope.
There was one other vaguely interesting philosophical thought brought up in the show. So, the whole idea is that he'll be immortal until he meets his one true love and their souls become united or something like that (I'm not making this up). So, I'm not going to make fun of that, because well, I don't care. Obviously, it's completely stupid, but so long as only a small part of the plot is dedicated to him looking for his one true love, I don't really mind. Although, it's kind of depressing that already many of the characters in the show have made fun of the search for his one true love, since it's so ridiculous.
Anyways, the vaguely interesting philosophical thought is the idea that there is only one true love for all time for each person. Now, I imagine the show's writers haven't thought about this too hard, but we'll just assume that they're paired up (ie- you are your one true love's one true love). If that wasn't the case, things would pretty much suck. On the other hand, I imagine it would work well with the whole "find someone who thinks you're amazing strategy" from Juno, since it would make sense to kick out all the people who aren't inherently impressed by you. But anyways, the interesting idea is that this person could be anywhere, either spatially or temporally (well, most likely spatially somewhere on planet Earth, but you know what I mean).
I don't know, but I feel like that would pretty much screw up just about everyone's hopes of meeting their one true love. I mean, the main character's already gone centuries without crossing paths with her. How should he know if she hasn't already lived, married, and died?
It's weird, though, because it's kind of hard to imagine there only existing a single person whose truly right for you for all time. I mean, it basically means, settle for whatever you can get. However, maybe it makes more sense to never settle to always allow the opportunity for the perfect person to arrive.
If you're the main character of this show, then that makes sense of course. The next question, though, is whether him having a heart attack was at all related to the women around him, or whether maybe that Native American spell is starting to lose it's strength. If it is related, that would be pretty convenient, initially, but I imagine it would get old after a little while. Can you imagine having a heart attack every time you hang out with the person whose perfect for you, that would totally suck. I mean, it's one thing to always be nervous and stammer or sweat or puke or whatever, but I think it would be better to die of embarrassment from the interaction as opposed to die of a heart attack from the interaction, but that's just me. And I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that dying of embarrassment isn't fatal.
So, yeah, that's the show. It didn't wow me, but I watched the whole thing. I mean, that's gotta be worth something. Plus, it feels like his police work is just kind of a backdrop for his life, rather than the focus of the show. I have to wonder, though, why he doesn't seem to make any attempt to keep the fact that he's really old secret. It feels more like he's just tired of telling everyone the long and boring story of his life, instead of him wanting people not to know. But, well, what can you do? When you live forever, I guess if you wait long enough then everybody forgets that you live forever, so why bother keeping it a secret? Admittedly, I can think of a couple reasons, but we'll just ignore those for now...
That is all.
Francis
In any case, watching this show got me thinking. Having watched House, it's really hard to appreciate an asshole character who isn't actually an asshole. I mean, obviously House set the bar for being a likable asshole pretty high, but that doesn't mean that characters shouldn't make the attempt (Dr. Cox made a good attempt, but that heart of gold of his keeps working against him). I mean, seriously, we've got a main character who has been alive for centuries. By this time, he should basically be insufferable. He should just know everything and everyone and rub it in everyone else's faces. But, no, this immortal is too cool to make other people feel bad. And, well, as the viewer, that makes him kind of boring.
He's basically likable. He uses his vast database of human experience to find a way to connect with anyone he wants to connect with and uses them. I mean, the using them part is cool, but he doesn't make them feel stupid for it afterwards. The worst part is that he narrates his life with this whole cynical attitude and stuff, but he's not actually cynical. He likes people. The people who interact with him like him too. The people who have to follow him around all day start to get tired of him, but that counts for nothing.
So, yeah, I was kind of disappointed about that. I was kind of hoping for a main character who's more depressed and reckless than the one I got. I kind of get the sense that his character was that way like 50 years ago, but that he's started down the path to enlightenment already. And what's worse, the show seems to want us to know that. They've already told us that he's gone over 30 years without alcohol and we've met some ex-flame who could remember when he was incapable of being in a stable relationship.
But, it was just the first episode. He's still got plenty of time to get depressed and rediscover alcohol as a way to escape the burden of centuries of living. He's even got plenty of time to continue losing faith in humanity and himself, and to take that out on the people around him. So, I still have hope.
There was one other vaguely interesting philosophical thought brought up in the show. So, the whole idea is that he'll be immortal until he meets his one true love and their souls become united or something like that (I'm not making this up). So, I'm not going to make fun of that, because well, I don't care. Obviously, it's completely stupid, but so long as only a small part of the plot is dedicated to him looking for his one true love, I don't really mind. Although, it's kind of depressing that already many of the characters in the show have made fun of the search for his one true love, since it's so ridiculous.
Anyways, the vaguely interesting philosophical thought is the idea that there is only one true love for all time for each person. Now, I imagine the show's writers haven't thought about this too hard, but we'll just assume that they're paired up (ie- you are your one true love's one true love). If that wasn't the case, things would pretty much suck. On the other hand, I imagine it would work well with the whole "find someone who thinks you're amazing strategy" from Juno, since it would make sense to kick out all the people who aren't inherently impressed by you. But anyways, the interesting idea is that this person could be anywhere, either spatially or temporally (well, most likely spatially somewhere on planet Earth, but you know what I mean).
I don't know, but I feel like that would pretty much screw up just about everyone's hopes of meeting their one true love. I mean, the main character's already gone centuries without crossing paths with her. How should he know if she hasn't already lived, married, and died?
It's weird, though, because it's kind of hard to imagine there only existing a single person whose truly right for you for all time. I mean, it basically means, settle for whatever you can get. However, maybe it makes more sense to never settle to always allow the opportunity for the perfect person to arrive.
If you're the main character of this show, then that makes sense of course. The next question, though, is whether him having a heart attack was at all related to the women around him, or whether maybe that Native American spell is starting to lose it's strength. If it is related, that would be pretty convenient, initially, but I imagine it would get old after a little while. Can you imagine having a heart attack every time you hang out with the person whose perfect for you, that would totally suck. I mean, it's one thing to always be nervous and stammer or sweat or puke or whatever, but I think it would be better to die of embarrassment from the interaction as opposed to die of a heart attack from the interaction, but that's just me. And I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that dying of embarrassment isn't fatal.
So, yeah, that's the show. It didn't wow me, but I watched the whole thing. I mean, that's gotta be worth something. Plus, it feels like his police work is just kind of a backdrop for his life, rather than the focus of the show. I have to wonder, though, why he doesn't seem to make any attempt to keep the fact that he's really old secret. It feels more like he's just tired of telling everyone the long and boring story of his life, instead of him wanting people not to know. But, well, what can you do? When you live forever, I guess if you wait long enough then everybody forgets that you live forever, so why bother keeping it a secret? Admittedly, I can think of a couple reasons, but we'll just ignore those for now...
That is all.
Francis
Monday, March 3, 2008
Terminator Season Finale
Well, this evening was the season finale for Terminator: The River is Crazy Freaking Hot Chronicles. I'm kind of surprised that Fox hasn't officially renewed it for another season yet. I don't know what it's numbers were, but I know they started out very high. Of course, I doubt they finished nearly that high, but I'm sure they were still quite strong. On the other hand, I bet it's a fair bit more expensive than that Moment of Truth show they have, which I think did significantly better numbers, so it's hard to judge. In any case, I would feel better if they would renew it. I think.
So, what are my thoughts on the series so far? I'm really enjoying it. I think it's starting to really find its stride. The addition of Derek "Asshat" Reese has been a lot better for the show than I had initially thought. I like that Sarah has another character to distrust and I also like Derek's flashbacks.
I don't like the color scheme in his flashbacks, though. I mean, seriously, James Cameron pretty clearly established that, in the future, everything is blue. So, why is it that in this version of the future, everything is brown? I mean, Derek was kept in a wood prison. Can you believe that? It's controlled by Skynet and it's made of wood! Why wasn't it cement and metal? I don't know. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit with the vision of James Cameron, either. In fact, the only part of the future that gets the blue filter is deep within John Connor's compound. In all fairness, this could be some sort of weird statement about the humans becoming more machine-like (what with reprogramming terminators for their service and all) while Skynet gets the browns to emphasize their focus on creating increasingly human-like terminators.
So, I guess, if I were really generous, I could assume that someone made the clear decision that they wanted to drop James Cameron's vision of the future in exchange for trying to make some stupid statement that already gets made so often it makes you want to puke in Battlestar Galactica. Or I could just conclude that some of the people involved in this show are purposely going out of their way to piss on James Cameron's vision.
I'm sorry, by the way. The above complaint was totally stupid and irrelevent to anyone who has even the barest semblance of self-respect, I'm sure. Obviously, I have no such thing, so this type of evil decision saddens me greatly, when I'm sure most people don't notice or care. But, it sure would be nice if the people who are getting paid to do this shit would care about the little things as much as I do. Anyways, moving on...That's right, I was talking about how I like the show.
I have to admit, though, the two episodes before this finale had me really worried. It really felt like the show was moving away from trying to get River and John to, um, experiment together. River was doing all these vaguely questionable things and totally not spending time making John feel uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time. Plus, there was this whole side plot with Agent Ellison finally starting to realize that maybe there really are dangerous robots out to get Sarah Connor, which was totally taking time away from River and John, not to mention that whole thing with developing Asshat Reese's character as fast as possible (I would hate him if he didn't provide Sarah with a distraction from River).
But, thankfully, the writer's knew that they had a carrot and they needed to put it back in front of me if they wanted me to tune in next season. And, oh man, did they ever put that carrot back. That first hour of the finale was just awesome. Here's the most important thing we learned: Terminators can totally do it. I mean, that terminator they killed was married! And, while we don't actually see him getting any, we do get to see him seducing her (his wife, while they're married, in case this is unclear). As a bonus, River is basically taking notes during this sequence. That's right: taking notes, filing the strategy in her dirty little mind for future reference. Oh, and chatting with John about it (if that doesn't make him uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time, I don't know what would). I like that John even called her on it (John, why does she say those things, indeed? I think you know).
Then, just to help John get more curious, he gets to cut her open and deactivate her. Now, personally, at this point I would have totally connected her to the computer and found all her old memories with future John Connor, just for kicks, but John didn't do that. I imagine the producers weren't ready to try to pick a thirty-year-old version of John Connor (it would be totally crazy if it was Edward Furlong, though...okay, obviously that would be totally stupid, but Nick Stahl would be cool). I also imagine that this wouldn't work very well because I bet future John Connor is smart enough to protect most of that stuff before sending her back anyways. But, it's still worth trying. You know, just in case?
Anyways, with River deactivated, John totally notices that she's rather cute (or outrageously hot, take your pick) when she's sleeping (so much for terminators never sleep). This made me happy, by the way. Especially when she woke up while he was still hunched over her, checking her out.
So, yeah, things are going well as far as I'm concerned. I'm a little nervous about that whole car exploding thing, but if the producers know what's good for them, they'll have River looking like the third hottest girl on the planet by at least midway through the second episode of next season. Also, John just had to be nice and have River agree to go to the prom with his friend (but, let's be honest here, it's not like John could take his "sister", so it's just as well).
In summary, the show finished very strong. I'm happy for that. This is probably because Sarah didn't have to play much of a role (John got to be the main character and man is the show better when it's focused on him). Of course, we could have done without Sarah lecturing us on Lord of the Flies, but, well, what can you do?
That is all.
Francis
PS - Did I mention that it was totally awesome to listen to Johnny Cash while the terminator took out, like, a dozen FBI agents? Yeah, that was pretty awesome.
PPS - I guess I'm going to have to start watching this New Amsterdam show that starts tomorrow, in the hopes that the main character is like House, only he lives forever (which I would consider to be a good reason to be an ass and hate humanity). It could have potential...maybe? Yeah, I doubt it, but you never know.
So, what are my thoughts on the series so far? I'm really enjoying it. I think it's starting to really find its stride. The addition of Derek "Asshat" Reese has been a lot better for the show than I had initially thought. I like that Sarah has another character to distrust and I also like Derek's flashbacks.
I don't like the color scheme in his flashbacks, though. I mean, seriously, James Cameron pretty clearly established that, in the future, everything is blue. So, why is it that in this version of the future, everything is brown? I mean, Derek was kept in a wood prison. Can you believe that? It's controlled by Skynet and it's made of wood! Why wasn't it cement and metal? I don't know. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit with the vision of James Cameron, either. In fact, the only part of the future that gets the blue filter is deep within John Connor's compound. In all fairness, this could be some sort of weird statement about the humans becoming more machine-like (what with reprogramming terminators for their service and all) while Skynet gets the browns to emphasize their focus on creating increasingly human-like terminators.
So, I guess, if I were really generous, I could assume that someone made the clear decision that they wanted to drop James Cameron's vision of the future in exchange for trying to make some stupid statement that already gets made so often it makes you want to puke in Battlestar Galactica. Or I could just conclude that some of the people involved in this show are purposely going out of their way to piss on James Cameron's vision.
I'm sorry, by the way. The above complaint was totally stupid and irrelevent to anyone who has even the barest semblance of self-respect, I'm sure. Obviously, I have no such thing, so this type of evil decision saddens me greatly, when I'm sure most people don't notice or care. But, it sure would be nice if the people who are getting paid to do this shit would care about the little things as much as I do. Anyways, moving on...That's right, I was talking about how I like the show.
I have to admit, though, the two episodes before this finale had me really worried. It really felt like the show was moving away from trying to get River and John to, um, experiment together. River was doing all these vaguely questionable things and totally not spending time making John feel uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time. Plus, there was this whole side plot with Agent Ellison finally starting to realize that maybe there really are dangerous robots out to get Sarah Connor, which was totally taking time away from River and John, not to mention that whole thing with developing Asshat Reese's character as fast as possible (I would hate him if he didn't provide Sarah with a distraction from River).
But, thankfully, the writer's knew that they had a carrot and they needed to put it back in front of me if they wanted me to tune in next season. And, oh man, did they ever put that carrot back. That first hour of the finale was just awesome. Here's the most important thing we learned: Terminators can totally do it. I mean, that terminator they killed was married! And, while we don't actually see him getting any, we do get to see him seducing her (his wife, while they're married, in case this is unclear). As a bonus, River is basically taking notes during this sequence. That's right: taking notes, filing the strategy in her dirty little mind for future reference. Oh, and chatting with John about it (if that doesn't make him uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time, I don't know what would). I like that John even called her on it (John, why does she say those things, indeed? I think you know).
Then, just to help John get more curious, he gets to cut her open and deactivate her. Now, personally, at this point I would have totally connected her to the computer and found all her old memories with future John Connor, just for kicks, but John didn't do that. I imagine the producers weren't ready to try to pick a thirty-year-old version of John Connor (it would be totally crazy if it was Edward Furlong, though...okay, obviously that would be totally stupid, but Nick Stahl would be cool). I also imagine that this wouldn't work very well because I bet future John Connor is smart enough to protect most of that stuff before sending her back anyways. But, it's still worth trying. You know, just in case?
Anyways, with River deactivated, John totally notices that she's rather cute (or outrageously hot, take your pick) when she's sleeping (so much for terminators never sleep). This made me happy, by the way. Especially when she woke up while he was still hunched over her, checking her out.
So, yeah, things are going well as far as I'm concerned. I'm a little nervous about that whole car exploding thing, but if the producers know what's good for them, they'll have River looking like the third hottest girl on the planet by at least midway through the second episode of next season. Also, John just had to be nice and have River agree to go to the prom with his friend (but, let's be honest here, it's not like John could take his "sister", so it's just as well).
In summary, the show finished very strong. I'm happy for that. This is probably because Sarah didn't have to play much of a role (John got to be the main character and man is the show better when it's focused on him). Of course, we could have done without Sarah lecturing us on Lord of the Flies, but, well, what can you do?
That is all.
Francis
PS - Did I mention that it was totally awesome to listen to Johnny Cash while the terminator took out, like, a dozen FBI agents? Yeah, that was pretty awesome.
PPS - I guess I'm going to have to start watching this New Amsterdam show that starts tomorrow, in the hopes that the main character is like House, only he lives forever (which I would consider to be a good reason to be an ass and hate humanity). It could have potential...maybe? Yeah, I doubt it, but you never know.
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