(54) Movie List

Watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark" last night. I'm a huge fan of the series and have a small warm place in my heart for Harrison Ford. My personal favorite is "...The Last Crusade" because well, I'm young and that was was the last one made (not including the 4th one this year), but each one has its good qualities. For 1981, "Raiders" is pretty impressive for the effects and action. I can't really come up with a review, but thought I'd mention some trivia, for those who haven't heard it yet.

So Harrison Ford was really sick (from dehydration, I believe) when they were taping the following scene and he apparently decided to cut the scene short and just pull out his gun rather than do this elaborate scene with his whip. The swordsman had been practicing that scene for months and wasn't too happy with this change but it definitely served for some good comic relief and helped set the stage for what type of character Indiana Jones is. :)

(16) Solo movie

Ok folks, I'm back from seeing "Tropic Thunder." Like I mentioned before, Chris and I tend not to see comedies in the theater unless it's with a group and I think I've established that I shouldn't see a comedy by myself ever again. It didn't help that I was one of 5 people so there were some heavier chuckles at the obvious jokes and then for the more subtle jokes, a couple of us would laugh and vice versa. I think it made it harder for me to get into it because I was still getting used to the fact that there was nobody else sitting next to me who I could look over to and laugh or comment on something.

Overall, I'll give this movie a solid B. The beginning dragged on for me, comedy-wise, so it took a little longer to really laugh at stuff, but the funny kicked in more towards the end. To sum up, this movie was about a group of actors re-enacting jungle fight scenes and it was turning into this huge flop with this idiot director. Then, to make the movie more authentic, it was suggested that the director just drop the actors in the middle of this jungle with some strategically placed explosives and cameras in the trees. The actors would then follow the directions and map to make sure they followed along the camera line and explosives would go off as they "acted" out the script. Well, let's just say it goes awry and some of them get captured by this drug processing establishment in the middle of the jungle and the rest of them have to get them out.

The humor was a little rough at times for the easily offended, but I'm not one of those people. :) The following was one of the funnier moments for me because it was so ridiculous. Kirk (Robert Downey Jr.) is trying to explain to Tugg (Ben Stiller) that he shouldn't have made the supposed flop movie "Simple Jack" about a "full" mentally retarded person because that never wins awards.

Kirk Lazarus: Everybody knows you never go full retard.
Tugg Speedman: What do you mean?
Kirk Lazarus: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There." Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...

Oh, and the soundtrack was pretty good, but also your typical cliche 70's classic rock war-esque music (Creedence, Stones, etc). A lot of the same songs from "Forrest Gump" for the war scenes, but it worked. Oh, and a few rap songs thrown in... I'll leave you with this screenshot of Tom Cruise and you can imagine him gettin' down to Ludacris' "Get Back" during the credits.

(29) No computer

I barely made it this month! I went from 1pm on 9/20 to 1pm on 9/21 without a computer. This is getting a little tricky though because I started on July 21st so does that mean each month starts on the 21st or should I cheat and just make a month an actual month? I'm still trying to figure that out, but if I can take care of something before the 21st, I'll try it. I'll admit I haven't done my bike ride yet so I'm hoping I can at least squeeze that in before September's over, even if that means I go to the end of the street and back.

I've had another beefy post in the works for a while now so expect that very soon!

(58) 5K

Quick post...

Some friends and I recently formed a team to participate in a 5K on November 2, 2008, benefiting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure here in Austin. I'm nowhere near as ready as I should be, but this is at least a step in the right direction. Anyway, if you are able to donate as little as $10, my team and I would greatly appreciate it! The donation is tax deductible and going towards a great cause.

Here's a direct link to our team page:

http://bit.ly/komen - Thanks!

(16) Solo movie

I think I have my solo movie figured out. This has been difficult the past couple weeks because Chris and I often agree on movies worth seeing (read as: paying to see) in the theater. We both prefer to make the most out of the full-screen experience and see primarily action/suspense type movies. If we see a comedy, we either won free tickets or we will have gone with a larger group of people. I'm not really the chick flick type and I try to stay away from kids movies because well, I'm paying to see a movie, not to hear kids talk/cry through the whole thing. It's much cheaper and more enjoyable renting them on DVD anyway.

We have a handful of free movie passes (no restrictions whatsoever) that have to be used by November so I was feeling the pressure to pick something quickly as well as the urge to cross something off the list. So anyway, I finally got a few recommendations and made the decision so I'll be checking it out next Monday (while Chris is in class) and afterwards, you will find out what I saw and how it scored on the Nisha-meter. :)

(54) Movie List

Watched "Jaws" and "Singin' in the Rain"...


Yes, that's Spielberg doing that directing gig he does so well. For 1975, Jaws is pretty impressive for what it is. I remember getting such a big kick out of the Jaws part of the Universal Studios tour in Calif. And sadly (or not sadly?), that movie was so convincing, I had the biggest fear of opening my eyes under water...in a pool. Specifically looking into the deep-end where the ground slopes down into darkness, afraid a shark would come up from the bottom. Haha, good times. But anyway, it was a good movie with great actors and some impressive special effects for the time.


It took me a while to finally get into this movie as it dragged along a bit and oh my god, Jean Hagen has a more annoying voice than Bernadette Peters (which you may remember as Rita in 'Rita & the Runt' on Animanaics...or from "The Jerk"). Anyway, I digress. It finally got into the meaty plot towards the end and threw in a nice "feel good" twist to leave a sweet taste in the mouth. Oh, and Gene Kelly isn't too bad to look at either so it worked out. His (along with the comic relief Donald O'Connor's) dancing looked so effortless and fluid. It really amazes me how different movies are now compared to 50 years ago.

Anyway, we've got a few more movies in the DVR ("Rear Window", "The Great Dictator", "Cinema Paradiso") before we switch cable providers this (dentist availability takes priority) next Thursday so I expect we'll at least try to watch those before we lose 'em.

(54) Movie List

After some, ok a lot of persuasion from Chris, we finally watched Alien & Aliens. I've never seen them in their entirety so I wanted to make sure I watched both within a few days. Chris caught both of them on tv so he set the DVR to record. :) For some reason, I already set myself up to not like the first one, but couldn't quite put my finger on it until I watched it. Here are some thoughts...


Alien: Ripley was a bit on the masculine side at times, but also kind of whiney/naive so something really bothered me about that and I couldn't fully get into it. I think that annoyance shaped my opinion of the whole series so I hadn't watched any of the other movies for fear that I wouldn't like them. I will say though, she was in great shape, as I'm sure most guys who grew up with that movie were fully aware of in certain scenes. Ok, moving on...


Aliens: My predetermined opinions were proven wrong for this one! This plot was much more developed and Ripley was more the protagonist and her character was more defined. She seemed more, well, kick-ass than the first one since she was on a solid mission and knew more than everyone else so she had to be tough. Something like that. :)

Maybe I'll watch the 3rd one, maybe I won't... Too many other movies to watch for now though so I'll focus on one thing at a time. :)

(91) Microchip Cats

A local mobile vet had a cheap vaccination clinic today so we decided to get the cats up to date on their rabies shots. We also found out that it would only be $15/cat to get them micro-chipped so we went ahead and did that as well. The poor things were meowing the WHOLE way there, but not as much on the way back and now they're back home and laying around as usual. They don't seem as affected as they have been in the past after a vet visit so I think that's good. I'll be putting on their 24petwatch tag shortly. I've been against putting tags on since a) they already have a bell on their collars and b) no need to have a ton of jingling tags hanging if they're indoor only. But this is much more important and the tags are plastic so no metal jingling. :)

Karma probably meowed the same amount in the car that she normally does in a month so you'd think she'd try avoiding being around the carriers. Nope, her usual "must try to climb into this small spot" self was trying to climb into them again.


I have another post in the works so stay tuned for that one soon...