Reviews

Submitted for your approval: Godzilla, the 1998 remake of the 1954 monster-movie classic. It was awful…I somehow avoided seeing this disaster during the summer between my Freshman & Sophomore year of college, but I thought, “I’ve got Netflix, so why not?” In any case, I can now join in the complaints about this movie that promised so much, but delivered so little. My main problem with the film is its unoriginality: In changing nearly everything about the classic Godzilla, you’d think they’d come-up with some original stuff. Instead, you see stolen bits from other movies here: The eggs in Madison Square Garden, reminiscent of “Aliens”, the desperate escape from young that they lifted wholesale from “Jurassic Park”. And why is it raining the WHOLE TIME? I felt sorry for Matthew Broderick having to endure 6 weeks of shooting under rain machines. ...

Latest Neflix: Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) Kubrick’s satiric masterpiece, aided by Peter Sellers (a.k.a. Inspector Clouseau), George C Scott, and the unforgettable Slim Pickins, the movie delights and terrifies. Though we face a world fraught with terrorism and uncertainty, this movie is a window into the time of Mutually Assured Destruction, when the only certainty was the concept of global annihilation in 30 minutes or less. ...

Today on the Netflix bandwagon: Chicago Full disclosure: Whitney hates this movie, and has been very vocal about it, so that’s probably colored my view here. What we have here is an opera/musical that centers around Roxie Hart, philandering wife of a lowly mechanic who figures to sleep her way to a shot at Vaudeville fame. When her lover comes clean about being a furniture salesman who fed her a line to bed her, she shoots him in a jealous rage. The plot describes her time in prison, the environment of 1920’s Chicago, and the role of media in justice (or, in this case, injustice). ...

Thanks to NetFlix I’ve seen one of the best films ever made: The Godfather Words really don’t do justice to the mastery of this film. From the first moment at the Corleone wedding, Coppola presents us with dozens of interesting, round characters. He captures not only the story, but also several picturesque locations: 1946 New York, Sicily. Color, texture, and smell flow from the screen to your cortex. The main thread of the story involves the Corleone family, most prominent of organized crime’s “5 Families”. As the story opens we see Brando as Don Corleone, aged patriarch, founder of the family. His three sons, hot-head Sonny (James Caan), simpleton Fredo, and college-kid-cum-war-hero Michael (Al Pachino) lead the magnificent cast of surrounding characters. Mainly, we see the story through Michael’s eye, his feelings of duty, honor, loss, rage. As he becomes first a pawn, then a killer, then a victim, then a calculating leader, we go through the changes with him. By then end, I was scheming with him. ...

Lots of randomness today: Learned that the reality TV phenomenon is likely to continue, as it’s sheer economics: Whereas scripted programs must be rerun in order to recoup production costs, networks can make a profit on a single showing of a reality program (no pesky writers or actors to pay…). I wonder how long it’ll take us to get to the “Jumping For Dollars” scene in The Running Man, where some hapless contestent grasps for $100 bills as Rotweilers nip at his heels. ...

Well, found a way to sign-up for google’s new Email Service. Instead of the paltry 2MB you get at hotmail or 4MB at yahoo, they give you a whole GIGABYTE of mail storage. my new address: miniharryc1978@gmail.com

Well, I’ve finally (re)joined the information age at full speed: Got my cable modem set-up last Tuesday and I waited a whole 6 hours after that to get my wireless router/firewall setup. Now, i’ve got both my powerbook and my dell running through it wirelessly on 1.5 Mbps connection to the internet. Nummy :D Also, in the package I get 10mb of web hosting, so guess what’s going there? PICTURES! For the past few weeks I’ve had a trial .Mac account, but that’s proven to be cumbersome, considering I have all the photo storage/editing/upload stuff I need right here in my powerbook. So, i’m going to drop that when the 60 days runs out and migrate my pics over to my new adelphia hosting. don’t think I’ll bother with an actual site w/them. My blog keeps me busy enough as is. ...

Well, saw my lovely last night and we went to see Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Thoughts: Why in the world does everyone expect thoughts to be in a bulletted-list? Is this the “POWERPOINT EFFECT”? :D Anyway, I thought it was a decent film, if utterly pointless. I had quite a bit of fun, and there’s more there than the PG rating would imply: Fart jokes, skimpy outfits from the two female leads. Lots of guilty pleasures here, mostly revolving around SMG doing a Buffy-esque fight with the Black Knight Ghost, and Linda Cardellini….well, all of Linda Cardellini. ...

Kill me, I’m a man: “The Producers” was hilarious and very up-beat. Great fare for a matinee, and our seats were excellent. We arrived late and missed the opening number, but from what I’ve read that’s no loss. My personal favorite: Ulla Basically, a Swedish chick that’s like 7 feet tall, stacked, and, as Whitney remarked, “Do those legs ever stop?” Stole the show, IMHO. * * * Some random thoughts I had for websites or blog topics: ...

Well, I’m offically poor. I finally took the plunge and got myself my gadget-of-all-gadgets, a 15" Mac Powerbook: After using our Dual Processor Powermac at work all week, I just had to break down and get one. I love everything about these things: The operating system is unix-based, so it’s got 25 years of development and tens of millions of man-hours of refinements in it The user interface is unparalleled in its user-friendliness ...

TheWB.com - Press Release: Well, looks like the Buffyverse is finally dead, that creation of Joss Whedon’s mind that spawned nerd-heaven “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will at least go into dormancy with the end of “Angel”, Los Angeles-based spinoff from the earlier “Buffy” series. These shows represented consistent creative writing, acting, and characterization in an increasingly homogenized television landscape. Though not an “Angel” fan myself, I’ll mark its passing with respect.