Yesterday didn’t warrant an update as the only interesting thing for you was that I watched:
Rescue Dawn. Another Christian Bale movie and another winner. I will say up front that the very end had a large ammount of cheese. However this story of a US pilot shot down over Vietnam during the war and his tale of survival was quite interesting. It told how he was caught, put into a camp, and eventually planned an escape. I felt a bit too much of the American Pyscho feel coming through in how he was portraying the pilot before he was actually supposed to start losing his cool with what was going on but overall it was enjoyable. The supporting cast all felt like a solid cast aside from his co-pilots that are shown at the end… but again I felt that the end of the movie was total cheese. One of his few movies I’ve seen so far that I’d say rent over buy, still worth at least a rent.

Wednesday night was of course drinking night so went out to meet up with Neil and Rex. Mainly talking about ze changes that come in April and called it an early night. (It had nothing to do with playing video games…)

Thursday I wanted to catch up a bit on movies and ended up watching Michael Clayton, one of the few movies who had a slew of nominations I had not yet seen for the majority of award ceremonies that have gone on in the past couple months (only There Will Be Blood is left..) Clooney gave a great performance but I’m going to have to throw in that the movie did have quite a few slow points to it. Solid plot, solid acting, it just dragged a bit. I believe the true reason that the movie started off with a scene that takes place 3/4′th of the way in was so it could start off with a bang and keep you drawn in enough to sit through the slow scenes that followed shortly after it. Bastards.. it worked.

I finally picked up GH3 which everyone I know is a huge fan of and I’ve always loved. I think the main reason I picked it up was due to my ‘net being down so I couldn’t play CoD 4…. I’m sure I’ll play through the whole thing but I do know when I saw it come back up I was online and back playing my current game of choice so hopefully GH3 won’t be collecting too much dust

Work slammed until noon at which point it got slow and I had time to fit in:
I read a lot of reviews on this on the indy circuit leaning towards both yay and nay. The main complaint on the review circuit was that Norah Jones first (and supposedly only) movie showing was a bit lackluster. I have to complain though. She was a woman ending a relationship and rebuilding herself through watching others while figuring out her life. I’ve seen quite a few women go through this exact persona and feel that she got it spot on. Jude Law plays the character that she goes to for comfort and plays his general self. (He’s great at his main role.. maybe he’s just too typecast at this point for anything else.) There are a few other key characters though none of them really mattered with these two carrying the true relationship angle. I personally think it was worth watching, maybe it was the acting, maybe it was the music, maybe it was the style it was filmed, maybe it was just overall enjoyable.. well at least to me

After work I took a quick nap and was awakened by Rex telling me that we were doing food and drinks, so I called up Rob and we were on our way.. well… after finishing up the game of CoD 4 I was on. Tif scolded us for not coming in so much lately and we half talked and half watched the Oscars while trying to have enough to drink Home after and into some drunken CoD 4 until I passed out.

Friday I dropped Molly off before work and went back to:

How I usually think! *shudders* oh how work can be annoying.. specially when I have to pay car insurance. Of course, keep in mind I wrecked my car recently, yet my rate dropped by $150 for a 6 month span… I’m not going to ask. Awesome. I’ll just run with it.

Saturday I finished another section of my Grandmother’s journal while at work. We were also busy enough for the day to fly by slow enough for Matt and I to watch:
Awake. Hayden Christensen (who as much as I’ve seen a few times before I’ve never really seen in too many movies) played a rich man’s son who has a heart issue and is love with Jessica Alba’s character. Terrence Howard plays Hayden’s doctor (who I’ve seen in a surprisingly large amount of movies recently.) Hayden’s character has the unfortunate problem of not fully going under when going through a procedure so he hears something being mentioned while the operation is happening. This is where the twist comes in and if you don’t remember the previews I won’t spoil it for you. While the ending was a bit weak, the movie itself was enjoyable. Worth a rent, though not too sure on a buy.

Also on a side note important updates soon!

Tuesday had a lot of work.. work.. and when I was getting ready to leave more work! After work I picked up my cousin from the grandparents and brought her back to my place where she passed out and I.. *laughs* played CoD4.

Wednesday I had lunch with the cousin and killed the afternoon with a movie.
Yes the comic book movie that no one remembers and was surprisingly well done. Warren Beatty played Tracey and was very fitting for the roll though I don’t think I can comprehend why he didn’t go for Madonna’s character while his woman had left him. Maybe I’m just an asshole but.. he was single… no hint they’d get back together.. why the hell not Her outfits were just yum throughout the movie (and I’m not that big of a fan of her usually.) I have to admit this is probably secretly one of my favorite Al Pacino rolls. At first it’s hard to see that it’s him as his makeup is that well done. The voice and over the top ranting of course gives it away but it’s so well done you can’t help but laugh. There are quite a few other big names in the movie but those are the only three that really mattered if you ask me. The rest were just a bit sub par.

At night I kept Molly entertained by going out to the bar for some drinking with Rex, Matt, and Rob. Great night on discounts(at least 5 free = score!), new drinks, and humor. (And apparently Matt was hung over the next day so you know thats a sign of a good night!) There was also something about the sun and the moon and what not but most of you wouldn’t be interested in that

Thursday, as the cousin has never been there, we spent about 20 hours at Ikea. Ok perhaps it was closer to 4 but she was in heaven on everything she could get for her new apartment. This was actually really useful since I found a few things I may be picking up when I move out. We’ll see. At least I have an idea on a few things and what they would cost. After that the two of us ended meeting up with Neil at The Clubhouse for dinner and since we were in Oak Brook wandered around in the cold a bit. As a plus I found out why I now set of every alarm when I walk into a store. It turns out it wasn’t an alien implant but my coat had a magnetic strip in it that had gotten re-magnetized. Score. Ended the night talking over a few ideas with my cousin for a book we’ve been talking about for what seems forever.

I have no excuse for not updating yesterday with how slow work was. With 2 people short we still had less calls come in than we have in over a year. So first we’ll start off with Sunday’s at work movie…

Michael Douglas plays the roll of someone who everyone thinks is crazy, and while he actually is crazy, discovers the secret hiding place of a treasure from ancient times. I do have to admit though the journal he finds and how he finds it are a bit.. off. While obviously insane his daughter allows him to play out his fantasies and ends up believing in them, if nothing more than to be close to her father. Evan Rachel Wood, who played the daughter, is turning out to be a decent actress (she also played Lucy in Across the Universe.) While most of her rolls aren’t too strong this one was very enjoyable (even though I’ve read reviews to the opposite she played a character able to just ‘deal with it’ regardless of how insane ‘it’ may be.) Lovers of indy movies will enjoy this, outside of that it’s a hit or miss kind of movie.

While a graphic novel and not a book I figured that I would toss up my thoughts on it anyway. The story had a very in depth look on some more realistic insights on a “What if masked heroes were real?” followed by a “what happens to the masked heroes if a TRUE super hero came into the picture?” It showed the entertainment of the novel idea of masked men running around fighting crime, followed by the acceptance, and finally the ridicule of a bunch of men running around in tights. When they are legitimized by the government this eventually turns to hatred as one of the biggest questions come into play, “Who watches the watchmen?” as in who truly polices this group of people? End all of that with a being of true super powers (somewhere between the idea of Superman and God) and how this makes the regular hero’s worthless, as well as makes the government he is affiliated with nearly all powerful just by knowing what they have in terms of a weapon. It has a lot of interesting commentary and is quite deep considering you wouldn’t notice half of that without truly paying attention to what they were doing.

Monday work is the slowest it’s been in over a year so I didn’t spend any time working on other things of say fitting a movie in while I was there.. *ahem*
We Own the Night is another one of the many cop/crime movies that have been coming out. While it is enjoyable and worth a watch I’m going to start this off by saying rent don’t buy. The replay value on this isn’t super high after an initial viewing, and while a great way to kill a slow afternoon at work not something that I’ll be returning to watch again anytime soon. With so many movies in this ‘style’ on the market (American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone, and The Departed) that are have a huge replay value I just have to stress that ahead of time. Now onto the movie itself it was enjoyable (aside from the fact that any guy watching will enjoy the first 5 minutes of the movie where Eva Mendes gets herself worked up for a fun night.) The plot was a bit on the weak side and while it carried through you didn’t get the feel for the character interaction that started off strong in the first half of the movie and slowly ebbed into a tale of revenge that also leaves Mark Wahllberg as a weak and if not annoying character.. a boring one.

Finished the night up with playing some CoD 4 with Matt.

Matt is now fully caught up with Battlestar Galactica and I’ve seen the extended version of Razor. While the DVD was labeled “unrated extended version” there was only one scene I didn’t really remember seeing previously. I’m not sure how that would have made it unrated either as there was nothing overly violent or sexual about the scene which is the usual reason for an unrated edition. Yes work was slow enough to be able to fit in the mini episode between seasons 3 and 4. By mini I of course mean an hour and 45 minutes BTW if you ARE a BSG fan you’ll notice the picture here isn’t the Razor cover. Click it for a bit of humor if you’re a fan of the show

This was a very excellent concept for a movie. Me only having 2 complaints, the first of which being more of a wish than a complaint is pretty good with my usual view I wish every transition in the movie took place visually how the first few did. My complaint is my lack of enthusiasm on how the “war” scene during strawberry fields was being played took form on the screen. The movie took place through the time when being a hippy was the thing to be. The music, the drugs, the protests, etc. On top of this it was a musical that basically played lyrics of songs at the time as being roughly 70% of the dialogue in the movie (much of this could be seen as a tribute to The Beatles as ahem.. 1-2 or two of the songs were there’s. Just 1-2… *laughs*)

After work I of course went home and played CoD 4 for a bit and half assed worked out since my leg is still complaining about running again.

Well I was working for James on the early shift I was in a bit of a daze all day. 8am on a weekday and at work. It was very off. I have to admit though between the painkillers I’m on and the lack of sleep the day did go by rather quick. Getting out early meant I had time to write out a to do list of a ton of things I both want and need to get done and take a nap after work which was more than needed and followed that up by working on my grandmother’s journal, which is more of a collection of letters to my grandfather that she wrote on her trip to Australia.

After writing for a bit a movie was in order:
The Brave One starred Jodie Foster playing the lead role in a story of a woman’s loss of a fiancé, being beaten nearly to death, and how she goes on a vigilante killing spree from just happening to constantly be in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to give herself peace of mind. Terrence Howard (the actor who played the television producer in Crash.. great guy) was the detective investigating murders that a vigilante were committing. Amazingly the two ended up being related They get involved as friends and hint at a chance of more happening between the two. The “twist” ending was partially expected but was in fact done really well. You knew what the detective was going to do for Jodie’s character but I didn’t see exactly how it would play out. I liked it.

Finished the night off with playing some Call of Duty 4 with Matt, one of his friends, and Chris. MMM CoD4.. yes I’m still addicted

Well the highlights over the ‘weekend’ .. I ended up visiting my grandparents for dinner. With soon to be changes in the lifestyle that’ll be harder to do soon so am trying to get in as many as possible. While there I found out I’ll now be working on my grandmother’s journal for when she took a trip to Australia. Apparently I’m the journal typer upper. *laughs*

On a not so fun note. Neil totaled his car, not too much info but it was on 55 on the way to work. He’s fine but the car is apparently wrecked. I told him just because he want’s to be like me doesn’t mean he should total his German car. That wasn’t one of my shining moments

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Angelina Jolie was one of the flicks I’ve watched since updating last. This movie’s a bit up in the air. The few people I know who have seen this have either found it to be boring or completely fascinating. Is off looking like New York in the era of World War 2 though quickly changes pace to be that era of humanity but with technology that we are at a level of, in some cases at least. It’s got quite a steampunk feel. Personally I liked it, I’d like to see him do another movie in the same style of past meets future as the director had a great feel to how he did it.

Aside from that of course there was a lot of CoD 4, last night we had Neil, Joe, Matt, and Chris all playing. If only Rex would get into it *shakes head* I suppose there was also a lot of other things done errand wise but nothing you’d feel like hearing about.

I know I know another lack of updates. However it is not ALL due to my recent addiction to Call of Duty 4 (Ok I’m sure a bit of it can be attributed to it. What can I say I’m a junky for the game and just can’t help it.) At any rate recently I mentioned I had a big change coming soon that I’d be telling you about. Well this has gone from one change to 2 large changes and I’ll have that information for you soon. 2 BIG changes in my private little world. Rawer.

Aside from working on said changes and CoD 4 I haven’t really been watching many movies but while it was slow at work I blame this on Matt since we’ve been watching BSG. (He’s done with S2 and onto S3.. soon to be caught up and in the private hell the rest of us endure while waiting.. oh so patiently.. for the end to come.)

There’s also some important news that has nothing to do with the above. As of the 9′th I’ve known Jen for 10 years. Wow. To know one of my ex’s for ten years and having been friends with her for most of that is just amazing. (see: How the hell is she not sick of me yet?!

I have a very boring update planned for today so the above sign was a warning of that! Work was busy.. my leg is killing me from running (maybe I ran a bit much.. thankfully I have painkillers though. MMMM painkillers.)

After work I decided to re-live the bum experience. I warmed up some cold left over pizza from my ‘rents and sat online playing CoD 4 with Neil, Matt, and Joe until late.

Yes that was really it. Nothing to see here today.. move along.