Avatar: A Movie Review

Published at February 11, 2010 in Movies. 1 Comment
“This low gravity will make you soft. And when you get soft, Pandora will eat you whole and shit you out.“

I saw Avatar not truly because I was waiting with antici……pation, but because it looked like everyone else in the world was going to see it, and I would feel stupid if it ends up being the biggest movie in the world… ever, and I didn’t see it. If you haven’t seen it, I would stop reading, as I reveal “key plot points”. Though if you yourself couldn’t have guessed these plot points… you’re not trying hard enough.

I saw it at the AMC Theater in Boston Common, in all its 3D glory. I put on my Buddy Holly glasses and watched the entire movie like that. I wasn’t the only one, so I didn’t feel quite as stupid. After a few minutes, with the initial headache wearing off, the graphics were really good. That much is undeniable. That being said, I have no great desire to see movies in 3D. I have been perfectly fine with 2D my entire life. If I want to see a movie played out in 3D, I’ll go see a play. I also feel the same way about 3D TVs, I just don’t see the need.

At any rate, Avatar… meh. The story was nothing new and really predictable. The Tree of Life, the crippled soldier, the invading hordes, it’s a story as old as time. I know it’s one of the highest grossing films of all time, and this is probably why it will win an Oscar. It’s good business for Hollywood. If this movie can make this much money in the theaters, imagine the amount it can make in residuals with an Academy Award.

The West Coast Tour

Published at June 27, 2009 in Friends and Life. 0 Comments
“Well I’ll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. It’s a quest for fun. I’m gonna have fun and you’re gonna have fun. We’re all gonna have so much fucking fun we’ll need plastic surgeory to remove our godamn smiles.“

I went on vacation. Webster and I were originally going to Sacromento to see Bobby Lau. Bobby Lau had to come back to the East Coast before Webster and I had a chance to visit, so we decided the best possible thing to do was go out there anyways. We would land in Vegas and drive up California, stopping at some great National Parks along the way. We knew some people out there ( San Diego, LA, San Fran ), and there was plenty to do out there. So the plan was to fly into Vegas, where coincidentally a friend of mine from work was also going to be attending “conferences” and doing “work”. Does anyone actually go to a conference in Vegas and expect to stay inside all day doing conference stuff? Oh yeah, trekkies… well, do normal people do this?

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon

So we flew out on a Tuesday night. You know the vacation started off right when at 330PM we were told we were going to miss our 830PM connecting flight in Ohio because of bad weather in Sri Lanka or some such nonsense. All the more reason why we need better air traffic control system in this country ( Story Here ). So we were rerouted to Minneapolis, naturally. Boston – Minne – Vegas, clearly the best possible route. We rolled into the rental car place at about midnight, and were out of there in a mere 1.5 hours. Screw you Thrifty via Dollar Rental! If you are going to be the only car rental place open, how about you hire more than 2 people to take orders? It was there we got our ride for the next 2 weeks, the sweetest, slickest, silverest PT Cruiser you ever did see. We debated getting something with a trunk for about 3 seconds, decided against it. 2 weeks later, that choice would haunt us.

Read on… it gets good.

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Star Trek: The Old Adventures of New James Kirk

Published at May 17, 2009 in Geeky and Movies. 0 Comments
“How come on Star Trek everybody’s private parts are the same? No alien lady ever told Captain Kirk, “Hey, get your thing out of my nose”.“

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night. This is a small review. If you havent seen it, stop reading about it.

Star Trek Movie Flowchart

Star Trek Movie Flowchart

A disclaimer or two. I have never seen a complete episode of The Original Series ( TOS ). Not a one. Everything I know about Kirk and company came from the couple of TOS movies I saw, which I cannot identify without a flow chart, and seeing practically every episode of every other Star Trek franchise. Some in syndication, most during their original runs.

Time travel. I am a fan. If I could put right what once went wrong, I would. I think the people running Star Trek wanted to use the original characters, but also wanted to avoid the scrutinizing of this film by thousands of Trekkies with 40 years of canon to compare to. Enter the alternate universe. I know it was an alternate universe because Spock told me so, thank you Spock.

So perhaps because of, or maybe despite me, not being a TOS die hard, I enjoyed the movie. The plot was fun, the action was cool and the special effects were well done.

As much as we are all fans of these classic characters, I wouldve liked to see a new generation of Star Trek. Just make a whole new crew, I dont know, 100 years after Deep Space Nine or something. There’s only so much prequel I can take. This was a fun movie, but now I fear we’ll see a sequel. A sequel to a prequel? A spreequel? Alternate universe and everything! That’s cool I guess, but meh, I think I would be more entertained with seeing more of the future of the Star Trek universe.

The Summer of Stickney

Published at May 7, 2009 in Friends and Life. 0 Comments
“Welcome everyone. I am your dam guide, Arnie. Now I’m about to take you through a fully funtional power plant, so please, no one wander off the dam tour and please take all the dam pictures you want. Now are there any dam questions?“

I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been busy. School, work, fun. But enough is enough. The People are dying to know what I have been doing. Yeah, I know you’re not. Just let me believe it. I need to believe it.

The weather is getting nicer, as it’s currently 60 degrees and raining out. But, nonetheless, plans for the latest Summer of Stickney are underway. This includes couch surfing, concert going, baseball gaming, road tripping, BBQs, parades, Euro tripping (??), along with all the usuals, Feast Party, beach going, bike riding!

Ive got a road trip planned, with details forthcoming. It will prove to be awesome, and Ive got charts and maps to prove it!

So check your emails, watch out for your voicemails, I might be heading your way soon!

Happy New Year!!

Published at January 2, 2009 in Geeky and Life. 0 Comments
“Polar bears are meant to be quite clever, very clever. They’re like the Einsteins of the bear community.“

This New Year started out with a bang! Myself and some associates, The Muirs, Scrub and Stew drove down to Newport with Erin and Mikey ( who had the common sense not to join us ) and dove into the Ocean with the Newport Polar Bears to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. Man, what an experience. We did not start to take off our many layers of clothes until about 5 minutes before noon, Dip Time. The first thing you have to do is put your bare feet on the cold, wet sand. All feeling is lost in about 45 seconds. Running in place helps keep the blood flowing, and for once, my few addition percentage points of body fat actually helped me out. As the Muirs and Scrub probably have combined body fat % of -4.2. The dip consists of running into knee high water, throwing yourself into the ocean, and running back out of the water to your waiting piles of towels and pants, trying to dry yourself off before the water freezes to your body. All and all the experience was a great one, and I hope to repeat it next year.

I dont know if it was Justin’s sunglasses, Stew’s speedo or Ryan’s pink underwear, but the good people at WPRI decided to film our initial responses coming out of the 40 degree water, on a beautifully sunny 20 degree beach day. You’ll only see me in the background of this video, as my response of “Fucking cold!!” was “too real” for the fine people at WPRI Eyewitness News.



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