Batman: The Dark Knight Review

Autumn and I were able to see Batman: The Dark Knight this weekend. Here's my review:

Acting: Overall, it was great. Heath Ledger (RIP) was the best Joker to date. Aaron Eckhart was very good as Harvey "Two-Face" Dent as well. As much as I despise Katie Holmes as an actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal was a pretty big downgrade for the character of Rachel Dawes. Christian Bale was good again, but I did like him in Batman Begins a little better. I think that's more of a product of his character being developed more in Batman Begins than in the Dark Knight.

Storyline: Solid, cohesive, deep, and enjoyable. The movie ran a little long, but I wasn't staring at my watch waiting to get out. It kept me interested throughout and overall it was a really solid story.

Special Effects: Believable for the most part. The great thing about Batman is that he uses gadgets and what not instead of super human powers. So it's pretty easy to make his stunts and action sequences believeable. There were a couple of times where things weren't really perfect for me, but all in all high quality.

Overall Experience: I left the theatre pleased. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone else who enjoys the comic book genre movies. It's one of the best. I'd put it just behind Iron Man in terms of best action movies of 2008.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest:
Acting: 4
Storyline: 5
Special Effects: 4
Overall Experience: 5

In conclusion, Batman: The Dark Knight receives 4.5 stars out of 5 and my recommendation for a movie to watch.

New PC is all built!

So I've had the past 2 days off of work because I'll be working this weekend instead. It came at a great time though, because my computer parts all came yesterday. I got everything pieced together and installed yesterday. For the first time ever, Windows Vista is responsive and bearable.

There's everything before I really got going on the install. Install took about 1.5 hours, then a couple hours to get Vista installed and, more importantly, World of Warcraft. My friend Jeremy is going to help me get Fedora installed on there tonight, so I have a Linux option for web browsing and development. I'll write tomororw with details on how that went.

Hellboy 2 Review

Autumn and I saw Hellboy 2: The Golden Army yesterday. Here's my breakdown of the movie.

Acting: The acting was good. I was disappointed that the voice of Abe Sapien was changed, but the new person did very well. All the rest of the returning cast was great. I particularly enjoyed Selma Blair in the role of Liz Sherman. Ron Pearlman was also really great as Hellboy.
Storyline: This is a really quirky film. I liked the subject matter and there were plenty of laughs throughout. There wasn't a TON of depth in the story, but enough to carry the movie.
Special Effects: Good quality and interesting style. Really similar to the first movie. There were a lot more non-human characters in this one, but all the people/things they created were pretty believable.
Overall Experience: I left the theater pleased. Overall a really nice movie, which was very similar to the first one, but with more strange characters.

Acting: 4 out of 5
Storyline: 3 out of 5
Special Effects: 4 out of 5
Overall Experience: 4 out of 5

I give Hellboy II 3.5 out of 5 stars.

If you were a fan of the first movie, you'll like the second one. If you're not into quirky action movies, then I'd recommend skipping this one.

Time for a new PC...

This rolls around once every 3 years or so... but it's that time again! I always feel bad because now I realize how out of touch I am with the PC building community when I start on this road. But there is tons of excitement that goes along with building a new computer.

This time, I'm getting enough hard drive space to have plenty of room to FRAPS Warcraft movies and still have plenty of room to dual boot some flavor of Linux, probably Ubuntu.

Fortunately, I've already suckered a friend into helping me get Linux up & running on the PC whenever I get it ordered, shipped, delivered, and built.

This should be really awesome, I can't wait.

What month is it?

Freaking July... I've been writing 6/7/08 on everything today. What an idiot I am. Who forgot to tell me it was July?

Hibachi for the win...

A few friends, Autumn, and myself visited this Japanese Steakhouse last night. The food was good and the banter was witty. Thanks everyone for coming out. Next time hopefully we don't have to eat and run, if you know what I mean Michelle.

Indiana Jones was ridiculous...

Autumn & I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull yesterday. Here's my breakdown of the movie:

Acting: The acting was decent in this movie. Shia LeBouff was good. The "feel" of the acting was very much in line with previous Indiana Jones movies.

Storyline: Easy to follow but a little too much science fiction. It differed from my expectations. Most of the "twist" elements were pretty easy to see coming (not that they were intended to be disguised). Nothing too complicated here, similar to the previous installments.

Special effects: Not that the quality wasn't good, but they were WAY over the top in terms of believability. There has to be a reason that someone can do something or survive something that isn't humanly possible. I buy into Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix because he's doing it with his mind. Superman can fly (even though he was a stalker in the previous film) and that is OK with me b/c he's from another planet. There's just something not quite right to me about a guy surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a unlatched fridge that is lead lined. Landing (due to the blast) miles outside the city and walking away. Too much for me to really buy into it.

Overall experience: Leaving the theatre I was satisfied with the experience. There wasn't anything that would make me recommend against seeing the movie if you're a fan of the Indiana Jones series.

On a scale of 1-5:
Acting: 4
Story: 3
Special Effects: 2.5
Overall Experience: 4

Final rating:

Not a must see, but worthwhile to see for sure.

Family Fun on the 4th.... or the 5th

Lots of family fun on the 5th at my Aunt's house. First of all, my parents were about 3 hours late after they locked their keys in their car down at Oak Island. Then we had a nice thunderstorm while we were cooking out, followed by a 2 hour long power outage. We had a great time nonetheless. Visiting with family is always a good thing. Once everyone got there and settled it was really enjoyable. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Hancock...

Saw Hancock Friday morning and I really liked it. Here's the breakdown:

Acting: Jason Bateman was the star of this film in my opinion. He was likable and funny. Will Smith was also excellent, but he's usually good in these types of roles.

Storyline: I wish it had a little more depth than it did. More details would have helped, but in general, it told you what you needed to know. Pretty predictable "twist" in the plot, but that doesn't take away from the story.

Special Effects: Realistic considering we're in a world where a super hero exists. I can excuse over the top action sequences in that scenario. Otherwise, high quality.

Overall Experience: Leaving the theater I felt satisfied and really enjoyed the money I spent that day. My wife and I both really enjoyed the laughs.

On a scale of 1-5:
Acting: 4
Storyline: 4
Special Effects: 4
Overall Experience: 4

Final rating:

See this one, it's worth the trip.

It's Friday on a Thursday!

You have to love a Thursday that is actually your Friday for the week. No matter how crappy my week may have been, knowing that it's over with today makes it all the more tolerable.

On a side note, I'm feeling kind of low. One of my friends has been going through some tough family times lately and just thinking about the situation gets me down. I know one thing is for sure, I don't forgive very easily, especially if you actively participate in something that wrecks a friend's life. For that, I can't ever respect or trust you again, even if my friend finds the compassion to do so.

On to happier notes... a friend from Georgia is going to move to Tennessee soon and he's going to find that place to live this weekend. It's pretty cool because he'll only be about 2.5-3 hours away now, so maybe we could actually hang out some time. Having cool friends in your life certainly does make the days better.

Speaking of good friends, a group of us are getting together this Sunday to have dinner at Kanpai in Winston-Salem. I love that place. You can't beat Japanese steakhouses. I'm sure we'll all have a blast!

OK, I don't know that I'll remember to post this weekend, so everyone have a happy and safe 4th of July. Hopefully I'll have some antics to report on early next week.

It's basketball day...

As the minutes tick away here at work, I look forward to getting some basketball time in this afternoon. It's really helping keep the weight off (which I've been pretty poor about the last couple of weeks). It's really time to get re-motivated and working towards my goal of losing another 15-20 lbs before my friend's wedding in late September. Bring on the WiiFit!

An odd juxtaposition of viewpoints on people...

I got to eat lunch with my old boss yesterday. I haven't seen him in ages. It was great to get caught up and what not. He appears to be doing well (remarried, has a granddaughter, and is the size of the Incredible Hulk [in theaters now]). He's considering a position here in North Carolina again, which is great news for me. I've always looked up to this guy and hope that I can be as good of a manager to other people as he was to me when I started my career. Meeting with him helps me get focused again and make sure I'm doing the right things to advance myself professionally. No more slacking!

On a completely different note, I hate it when in an attempt to enjoy something, someone refuses to keep their mouth shut. My tolerance level with people hit another low last night, but hey, I didn't go crazy and yell at anyone, so I have to count that as a victory. Today is a new day and hopefully things will be a lot better.

So all in all, yesterday was pretty weird. I started the day appreciating people and getting my focus back. I ended the day by being annoyed by people. So I guess people went 1 for 2 yesterday. Not bad.

OMFG Candice has a blog...

So seriously, for the first time today, I felt like I was way behind in web geekdom. I found out my friend's wife has a blog (and a pretty awesome one at that) and I don't even remember the login information to mine. So I've started this new one and hopefully I'll be keeping it up from time to time. I seriously doubt it'll be as good as Candice's, but hey, I'll give it a shot.