Review: Eagle Eye

On Saturday afternoon Kim and I skipped out for a quick date and watched the movie Eagle Eye. Overall I enjoyed it. It was well paced, decently acted, and interesting. However I did have some issues with it.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

It became obvious early on what the plot was. Heck, as soon as you heard what the main character's brother was into in University courses I started to get a glimmer of the path of the story. About 20-30 minutes in, I had 90% locked up: super computer AI built to assist the government has gone power mad and decided with cold, callous logic that the government must be eliminated for the people's own good. All that was left for me to see was the details.

This is, of course, science fantasy. Its so far beyond belief that a computer built and designed to watch all information feeds across the globe to analyze for threats against America would come to the realization that the Executive branch is making poor decisions that end up hurting Americans in the long run, and thus having realized that and read and analyzed the Declaration of Independence it decides to overthrow this tyrannical government. It of course has super-ninja-access to every computer system and cell phone everywhere, not to mention every database, and uses this information and its cold logic to coerce ordinary citizens into doing its bidding that it cannot do remotely with available electronics and automated systems.

This all-knowing all-accessing all-analyzing and all-sociopathic computer, however, cannot give itself the command to actually execute its plan to execute the executive branch. A plan with all pieces except the final completely-made-up-super-powerful crystal explosive in place. Even though in the process of putting this plan in place we have witnessed the execution of at least two innocent people and threats to hurt hundreds more in the process. Not to mention the vast amount of property damage.

It strains credulity.

Anyhow, if you can turn your brain off, its a good action movie. Three out of five stars.

LOL

I was reading this post about the idiocy of Sarah Palin and in the comments one made me laugh out laugh out loud:

comment by Sean S. on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 6:52 pm:

Dan Quayle,

From the bottom of my heart, I apologize for everything I ever said and thought about you. Compared to this hunk of meat, you are a friggin’ philosopher king.

Sorry again, dude.

Its so funny because its so true.

Purple Belt Incoming

Today Jiu Jitsu class was me and the dojo owner and a black belt who sometimes instructs. They suggested I do my third stripe review since its scheduled for Monday night and there were no other students and I said "Sure!"

It was over in short order and I'm set at third stripe blue belt. Now I have to do my red tip review and then test for the purple belt, probably in October.

Bah Humbug

The crazy election season is upon us and I find myself more interested in the US Presidental Election than the Canadian Federal election. Part of the problem is I find a lot of faults with all the parties at the moment and I feel generally disenfranchised.

Where is the fiscal conservative yet socially liberal party I yearn for? Before the election I was considering the Liberals for the first time ever but their Green Shift non-platform-plank has left me confused at first glance and despondent at second glance. The Green party went from fiscal conservative to socialistic nightmare for me, and the NDP... well... I'm still scarred by Bob Rae's days in Ontario thank you very much.

My goal over the next couple weeks is to analyze more closely all the platforms and try to come to a decision, but I'm not confident I'll be able to vote for anyone with holding my nose.

Frosty

This morning as I slipped out of the sleeping house I noticed a horrible thing. The van was frosted up. Yep. Frost. Requiring a snowbrush and windshield defrost to remove.

Winter is coming; fall is here.

The Whole Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth

Last week Lukas had his first tooth on the bottom gum erupt to our surprise and joy. A couple days later a second tooth appeared adjacent to the first. While early at four and a half month, its not unheard of. He and his brother are growing so quickly its hard to believe.

This past weekend they had their first overnight stay without both Kim and I. It was hard as hell leaving them even with someone we trusted, but we managed. We then spent Saturday doing a lot of housework that had been avoided or not as thoroughly done as since the boys arrived.

We missed them like crazy and the house seemed extra empty. We were very glad to get them back on Sunday.

Dear Ottawa Senators:

If you get Mats Sudin on your team I will have a hard time cheering for you.

Yours truly, Bill

Going....Going....

The Weight Watchers Redux continues with me hitting the 220 lbs mark this week putting me down 8 lbs after six weeks. This is better than my goal of a pound a week so I'm pleased. With 15 weeks to go to Christmas and 12 more pounds to lose for my first goal, I'm in good shape.

Its amazing how much better I feel after just a few pounds lost. More energy, better breathing, better speed and reaction time in tennis and more stamina in both tennis and Jiu-Jitsu. In fact I credit the current weight loss with my stellar 7-6 victory in tennis over Andrew on Friday. ;)

Once I get to 208, after Christmas my second goal is to get to 188 before the new tennis season starts in the spring. Its ambitious for me but this time I intend to see it through.

Review: Doomsday

Last night we looked to relax with a video from the local store and I wanted some mindless action. Pickings were slim but I choose Doomsday. My expectations were low but all I wanted was action, some scenery chewing bad guys, and to turn my mind off.

Amazingly, it failed to meet even my low standards.

First off, some good things. There was lots of action, the main bad guy was definitely chewing scenery like a mad man, and.... well that's it really.

Now the things I didn't like.

First off, a lot of movies nowadays using the "jumping camera" during action sequences to make the fighting seem more intense and fast paced than traditional steady cameras with long shots do. I get that; don't like it but I accept it. But in this movie the director felt that every scene needed five or six camera angles and that the scene should flip from each one every second, even when the characters were doing nothing but sitting and talking. It drove me insane, almost to the point where I shut it off. There is no reason for that crap.

Secondly, the back story was beyond unlikely into ludicrous a lot of the time. The political side story was pathetically moronic and could have been left out entirely IMHO. The walling off of Scotland with no one ever going in was obviously unrelated to anything resembling reality. And the whole medieval society that shows up in the middle of the movie was completely off the wall. I mean, yeah, I can see people reverting to older styles of government (in this case feudal) and tehcnologies (bows and arrows, horses, etc) but actually dressing and living like they were in the 1300s? I mean, come on! Get real.

Furthermore, the nuclear fallout shelter that everyone appeared to know about but no one bothered to plunder? Sheesh, can you say plot device? And one last thing: even a devolved, barbaric, cannibalistic society knows that you don't cook people while they are still wearing their clothes. All the plastic will just poison the meat. Sigh.

Anyways, all these little things disrupted my enjoyment of the movie to the point where I wish I hadn't rented it. I wanted a simple post-apocalyptic romp and instead got a convoluted and wandering story and poorly directed camera work. Better off left on the shelves, or in the garbage bin.

This And That

Long weekend was halfway between busy and relaxing. Travelled to Kingston to see my grandfather in the hospital on Saturday (hey, I had my father's new Jeep Patriot while he borrowed the van back, figured I'd use it!) and then spent Sunday in Brockville. Monday was relaxing day at home.

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On Monday I installed some new hardware in the house. A new fancy thermostat to replace the ancient one we had for the furnace. Now I have some confidence in the temperatures being reported. And a new door bell button as the old one simply began to disintegrate.

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Listeria reported in mushrooms now. WILL IT NEVER END?!?!?!

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Next Saturday Kim and her mother are going out to the movies and the mall leaving the boys with me for the day. I told Kim as long as I don't have to bathe them I'll be fine. I'm terrified of bathing them while they are still in the floppy body stage; I figure I need two hands to hold them in place and one hand to do the washing. Last time I checked I was one short. Kim can do it with two hands but I'd prefer not to risk a concussion on my progeny this early in life.

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We're talking about putting the Corolla (aka Sugar) back on the road with a new engine. The van is great and everything except the gas bill is so expensive. We figure the Corolla would use $160 less gas per month and as long as the insurance is less than that for the two vehicles, it would be worth it. Plus Kim would have the van for her own travels in town during the week. And the van would last longer as we'd put far fewer commuting miles on it.

The other option is to steal Terry's Patriot but he might notice.