I just finished watching Gran Torino with Christine and I must say It was a fantastic movie.  The trailers did not do that movie justice.  Clint was fantastic as the acting role.  But more importantly, for all the racial slurs and political incorrectness, the movie comes around full circle.  Clint befriends a family of a culture he does not understand.  and at the end [spoiler alert] gives his life for their well being.  I was really left with a lasting impression and cannot shake this movie out of my head.   Real or fictitious, I feel I understand veterans a little bit more.  It also gives me something to aspire to, namely my grumpy old man syndrome.  I can only hope that I am as cool as Clint was in the movie when he gets enraged by the youth of today.  Immediately after I checked to see in Gran Torino was nominated for an Oscar. What the hell.  Now I have not seen most of the Oscar Nominated movies but i cannot imagine that all of them are better than Gran Torino.  Oh well.  What am I gonna do about it.

So I finally got a chance and saw the movie. I can honestly say that I have seen all four Indy movies in the theater. Which is pretty cool. You cannot review this movie on its own merits. Right off the bat I will say that I really liked it. It might actually be better than The Last Crusade but only time will tell with me.

The MacGuffen device was good. I know its very different than holy objects but lets face it. How pissed off would everyone be if he went in search of another Christian object. Raiders of Noahs Ark? Indiana Jones and the cross of Christ? Indiana Jones and the lost meaning of Kaballah? Well you get the idea. The Crystal Skulls where good and progressed the movie forward in a linear manner. I will say that the Skull itself should have been a little smaller. It was a very big awkward thing. But Oh well. The Idea was very cool and reminisced of 50’s sci fi which was cool.

Speaking of the 50’s, it was a little weird seeing Henry Jones Jr. in a different time period. It took a little getting used to, but towards the middle of the movie you say okay! And you finally give in and say thats what has to happen to properly place Indy’s age. I did not enjoy how however, how there where allusions of Indy’s past being larger than life. I think it distracted from the movie. We all now Indy is a badass and has adventured throughout the globe and this movie should be a new adventure. We do not need to know that he has already been to this part of the world when he was a kid. Spielberg did however make Canon the Young Indiana Jone Chronicle which is much better than dismissing the whole Franchise.

The whole cast was great. Every actor was on top of their game and the chemistry between all of them was good. There should be no complaints in the actors dept. Marion did look a little haggered but whatever. Shia did well as Indy’s son and i am glad they did not make him into just a carbon copy version of Indy. but I hope they don’t continue the series with him. It would not be right.

There where two thing major things that did not make this movie feel truly like a previous one. The lighting was all off. Although the lighting was good it was not a match of the original series. To many blooming effects and lens flares. Damn the lens flare. every shot practically had a damn lens flare. The other thing was the editing and pacing of the movie. It felt like one giant chase sequence. At no time did we relax and take in what was going on.

In all, I really liked the movie. It was more serious than The Last Crusade which I liked. Everything was fun and full of adventure which is the essence of Indy. It has a few flaws which are mostly continuity with the original three. If it was a new movie without any history it would have been great. It would have been impossible to be on par with Raiders. People even criticized Temple of Doom because it was not like the first one. I can honestly say that it was a good movie and a welcomed addition to the Indy franchise. Please, No more!

So I finally got a chance to watch The King of Kong.  If you don’t know, it is about 2 guys trying to get the top score in Donkey Kong.  According to the documentary Donkey Kong is the hardest game in all of retro gaming.  This movie is pure magic on all levels.  Cristopher Guest could not make movies this good.  The characters seem like they are right out of a comic book, expect they are real people.  You question yourself the entire time asking could these people be real? Is this scripted?  But it isn’t! The film is humorous but at the end it is touching.  You find yourself rooting for the main character.  If you get a chance please rent this movie.  I cannot recommend it enough.

Update:  Since I am on the subject of retro gaming.  My Tron project is going well.  I have taken a week off of it but plan to jump back into the rehab next week.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG !Seriously. could I be any more excited? I think I just came a little. Sure! I still have my doubts in the direction that they will take this movie. And I am not sure about the whole crystal skull alien connection. But COME ON! Indiana Jones!

Last night I went with most of my coworkers to see the latest Rambo flick.  I went in with skepticism, low expectations, and thought it was going to be so bad that it would come back around again to funny.  Boy was I wrong.  This is probably my favorite Rambo movie of all.  gone is the unrealism of Rambo fighting off thousands of people with one machine gun and overall silly factor of the last two.  This was a much more human story line that dealt with the civil war in Burma.  Don’t get me wrong! Rambo still kicks ass, but it was handled in a much more realistic fashion.  The pacing of the movie is great.  It starts slow with enough character development that you really care about them at the end.  The movie gradually builds up to an amazing shoot em up kick ass bullet fest.  Also there is plenty of blood and guts.  Actually, in the movie there is a sniper with a 50 Cal that shoots alot of people.  Having seen that gun in action, the movie toned down the gruesome effect of what the gun is capable of.  Cameron also joined me to see the flick. And a special appearance of The Captain came too.  This was a great movie and I highly recommend it if your into this sort of thing.

Tonight Jeremy and I saw the opening of Cloverfield.  Unfortunately the Captain did not make an appearence as the theater was packed and pouring alcohol from a flask into a cup of coke is a little tricky when there are hundreds of people around you.  I’m not going to do an in depth review because you can find a million of them out there.  What I will say is that I can see why alot of people are going to be polarized on this movie.  I personally loved it.  But I can see why some wont.  Jeremy’s crit was on the creature design and that it was a little too anthropomorphic and I completely agree.  My favorite device was the camera work.  I know many people hate the shaky cam and makes them sick but I had a love hate relationship with it.  It was great for the fact that it controled what you where seeing but on the other hand I wanted to rip that damn thing out of the hands of the kid filming and point it the other way.  Kinda like when you bite a fruit roll up and the sweet and sour taste make you want to shove the whole damn thing in your mouth.  I think this movie is a new and fresh perspective on the monster movie genre and I think will even improve with age.  I can’t wait to see it again on dvd.  Oh! BTW,  The best thing about the movie is the sound design.  Absolutely amazing.