I’m a national superstar now:
Go me.
Movie Review: Cars
I really enjoyed Disney/Pixar’s latest offering. Cars is, of course, marketed as a kid’s movie and when one of my roommates and I went to go see it, the place was overrun with rugrats. This was actually not that bad as he and I could have a full-blown conversation in the middle of the movie without really being out of place!
Anyone who knows anything about Pixar knows that they are the absolute best in terms of rendering almost life-like three-dimensional images on screen. Cars is no exception. The movie looks phenomenal, literally. From Lightning’s (Owen Wilson) flashy shine to Doc’s (Paul Newman’s) rebuffed exterior towards the end of the movie, the designers did a masterful job of putting together a tremendous looking piece of work. And the landscapes are awe-inspiring, albeit digitally rendered.
While I highly recommend this movie and I will probably go back to see it if I can catch a $5 matinee somewhere, I did have one major problem with the core of the story. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that Owen Wilson’s character winds up in extremely small-town America which consists of one-street’s worth of a previously bustling tourist area. Well, the “story” is that with the creation of the interstate, Route 66 (the home of Radiator Springs, the dead tourist town) is not used too much any longer. The implication? The mini-tourist towns along Route 66 are decimated by people buzzing by on the highway instead of passing through their tourism-fueled towns.
Sad and true story.
But something just rubbed me the wrong way about the Disney Corporation making a movie that pretty much scolds the public for neglecting Middle American tourist spots. Isn’t this the same company that all but killed the Heartland tourism industry by putting two mega popular theme parks in Florida and California? And weren’t highways built, in part, to facilitate mass transportation to and from these places? I also think that it’s quite ironic that people will take these highways and continue to pass these small former tourist areas in order to go to these theme parks so they can see rides and attractions about this movie…
And as far as complaining about the fast-paced lives of today, I have a problem with the company who owns ESPN bitching about this. Let’s not forget that ESPN just introduced their own mobile phone brand that gives you even more sports-on-demand options than the standard mobile phone sports service… because sometimes you JUST have to know what your favorite baseball player’s batting average was when he was in high school…
Those points aside, I thought the movie was great. The graphics rocked, the story was good, and the plot moved along well. The actors all did a great job with their voiceovers and I highly suggest going to see this movie – especially if you have rugrats that you need to entertain!
Movie Review: Da Vinci Code
Pretty much everyone in the world has read The Da Vinci Code. It’s a decent, B-rate thriller. The religious themes in the book are fun to speculate about – especially if you know a little bit about religious history and can see the holes all over the plot. Anyway, that’s a different story for a different time!
I don’t know if I would suggest to go and see this movie only because I don’t know if the movie is worth the $9 or $10 to go see it. If you can catch a $5 matinee somewhere (they do exist!), then definitely go check it out, but this would make a great “Blockbuster movie night” in a few months when it comes out on DVD.
The movie itself is very close to the book. As a matter of fact, if you read the book over a year ago like I did, you’d think that the book and the movie are exactly the same – word for word. The truth is that there are some parts of the book that haven’t quite made it to the movie, like Sophie’s brother or the second cryptex. However, the movie is still pretty good without those parts and I’m sure it’ll be a Christmas present for a bunch of people.
Sir Ian McKellan and Tom Hanks deliver good performances. Some have been harsh on Hanks in the movie, but I disagree. It’s not easy for any actor to be given a role where over half of the movie-watching world has read the book that this character comes from! Hanks manages to give life to a generally boring character and I hope that they bring him back for the future Dan Brown movies that are in the works.
I give the movie my approval, but don’t expect to see anything more than what was in the book if you go to see the movie – quite frankly, if you DID expect anything other than what was in the book, then you’re nuts!
John Tenta Passes Away at 42
On Wednesday, June 7, 2006 the wrestling world lost a great man. While John Tenta didn’t have the glamorous gimmicks of a Shawn Michaels or the lasting in-ring legacy of an Undertaker or Hulk Hogan, he made the very best of whatever situation he was given. When WWE told him to “kill” Jake Roberts’ pet snake, he did so; when they paired him up with Hulk Hogan early in his career, he matched Hogan’s size and strength at a very young age; and when WCW gave him the gimmick of being a Shark…he took the shtick and performed admirably.
Before debuting in WWE, Tenta was an extremely successful Sumo wrestler and an accomplished amateur wrestler. Undoubtedly, though, Tenta’s biggest professional success came as part of a tag team with Fred “Tugboat/Typhoon” Ottoman. As the Natural Disasters, Earthquake and Typhoon physically dominated their opponents and even won the prestigious WWE Tag Team Championship at a time when that title meant something.
This website, in its early years, even started a mildly successful online campaign to “Bring Back the Natural Disasters,” which, we understand, made both Tenta and Ottoman get a good-hearted laugh. For all of the years of entertainment that this man brought to the fans and me personally, I am glad that we could do something to return the favor, even if it was unsuccessful in bringing them back to TV!
From his WWE debut squashing the Ultimate Warrior in the middle of a push-up contest to his final days in the ring as “Golga” of the Howard Stern inspired Oddities, John Tenta did what he could to give the fans their money’s worth. His personal humility outside of the ring is a trait that many of today’s “superstars” could learn a thing or two about. John Tenta was a rare man in the wrestling business…a man who put his family and friends before his legacy.
And perhaps that will be his greatest legacy in professional wrestling – the fact that after he passed away, his contemporaries and fans only have positive, great things to say about him. John Tenta may not leave behind multiple world championships or a cadre of in-ring success, but he does leave behind fans who respect the effort that this man put in to his trade. Tenta was a performer and a man who could perform on the biggest stages against the best competition.
I extend my deepest sympathies to John’s family and friends and I join in grieving for this good-natured, mild-hearted man who was taken away from the world way too early at the age of 42 from one of the world’s greatest killers, cancer.
Movie Review: X-Men 3
This movie seems to be getting mixed reviews all over the place. Some are pissed because they don’t like what the director did, others are happy to see a character like Beast, and others just like that they’re watching another comic book movie.
I thought that the movie was good while I was watching it. There was an interesting story and some unbelievable deaths in the movie. However, as I was watching it I began to realize that there was something sorta wrong going on here. The thing is, while you’re watching the movie, you can’t really sit and think what is wrong with the story because there is always something else going on that draws your attention.
For instance, there is a part in the movie where Professor X is killed (or so you would think unless you stick around until after the credits). Anyone who ever read the comics (I did not) or knows anything about the series (I do) knows that this is a completely ridiculous event. The guys is supposed to be this big super human mutant or whatever. I’m not quite sure how it works, all I know is that he’s not supposed to die.
The thing is, you can’t stop to figure out what the hell is going on because the house is flying and Magneto is getting his ass kicked and there’s just a big mess going on.
I don’t want to give away too much of the movie. If you’ve got the money, I would suggest going out to see this movie.
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