life, and a little more

Transformers 2: the anger of a fallen fan

Jul 03

metalman777movies movies, rant, transformers 2 7 Comments

I’m sure you have heard of all the bad reviews that the second Transformer movie is getting.  I absolutely loved the first movie so I just couldn’t believe all the bad press the sequel was getting.  The reviewers had to be missing something, right?

Wrong.

I took my beautiful wife of almost 16 years to see it last night.  I was giddy and excited and a little nervous.  What if this movie sucked as bad as the critics said? As the lights dimmed, I assured myself that I was in for 2+ hours of awesomeness.

Wrong.

Here goes my rant:  I could not wait for this movie to be over.  Shia LeBeouf did a good job, but otherwise, the characters were inane and weak and shallow.  Don’t tell me not to expect much as this is a Michael Bay movie.  I went in with super low expectations of a storyline and character development, and those expectations were sorrily disappointed!

The human characters aside, the robots  seemed like caricatures of themselves.  The magic of Transformers 1 was that the robots seemed real and you could establish a small connection with them.  Almost every Transformer besides Optimus Prime was in the movie only for comic relief.  Those twin robots?  What the crap man!!  They were more annoying than Jar Jar Binks!  Here is my biggest complaint:  This is a story about a huge robot war that has made its way to earth. Robots, robots, robots!  Why did Michael Bay have to sexualize them?  Devastator with testicles?  Boo!  The little remote control Transformer humping Megan Fox’s leg like a dog?  Again, boo!

Let’s just set morality aside for a moment.  These are freakin’ robots!  And unless they are Caprica Six from Battlestar Galactica, there should be nothing sexual about them!  These are not robots studying the human condition, a-la Data from Star Trek TNG.  Why anthropomorphize them that way?

Let’s put morality back in the mix.  This movie is PG-13 but it is marketed to kids.  C’mon folks, let’s be real.  I see the commercials on Nickelodeon and Disney and I see the toys prominently displayed at the local Wal-Mart or Target.  THIS IS NOT A MOVIE FOR KIDS!!!!

Maybe I’m too pure a sci-fi fan.  Maybe I am too picky.  All I wanted was to see giant space robots (check), big explosions (check), fast cars (check), a pretty girl (check), and a fun and entertaining story to glue it all together (epic FAIL).

I was not expecting an epic movie or a movie to make me think or a movie to move my emotions.  I just wanted a summer popcorn-eater blockbuster.  I did not get itl

2009 Movie Posters and Trailers

Mar 07

metalman777movies, videos movie posters, movies, trailers 3 Comments

Star Trek (Release Date: 05/08/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ETDE0VGJY4&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/home.php&feature=player_embedded]

Transformers 2 (Release Date: 06/26/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmgbbGJW6ZE]

GI Joe: Rise of Cobra (Release Date: 08/07/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKVqPzm134U]

Terminator Salvation (Release Date: 05/21/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjWCyJ0krI]

X-Men Orgins:Wolverine (Release Date: 05/01/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epSX2Sr-lP4]

Public Enemies (Release Date:07/01/09)

[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BawY4gjAdM]

Race to Witch Mountain (Release Date: 03/13/09)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buai86C0gY4]

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQyrz5V7Vuw]

Inglorious Basterds (Release Date: June 2009)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoPxyxpE9A]

Appaloosa – Very Authentic, Very Slow

Jan 15

metalman777movies, videos appaloosa, dvd review, movies, westerns No Comments

I’ve never been a big fan of western movies.  Sure, I loved the Young Guns movies of the 80′s but that was about it.

A few years ago a remake of 3:10 To Yuma was created and I absolutely loved it.  Great story, great character development, great everything!  I tried catching up on some western’s that I had missed, like Tombstone and The Unforgiven.  I was so glad to find another genre of movies that I liked.

Ed Harris’ Appaloosa was released to DVD this week, and I bought it right away.  I eagerly popped it in my laptop and fired it up…..

….and was still waiting for some action two hours later.  There were about 3 gunfights and that was about it.

I know Harris strived for authenticity, and that is to be commended.  Even when guns were fired, the sound wasn’t embellished and the fights were over very quickly.  I can appreciate that.  Absolutely everything looked authentic.  (Except for Renée Zellweger.  Is that a fat suit on her face?  Her face looked uncomfortably swollen.)

This was a good movie, but not what I was expecting.  Part of my problem might be that I will always have Ed Harris typecast as Robocop and will always have Viggo Mortensen typecast as Aragon from LOTR.

Check out the trailer below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw1XFu-mFVk]

Avoid Beverly Hills Chihuahua At All Costs

Oct 10

metalman777movies, videos movies No Comments

This movie stinks worse than a three day old dog turd on the floor!  I love kid movies, and I love animal movies (Babe anyone?), but this movie is just horrible.  The voice acting is stilted and uninspired, the cgi is bad and the plotline is just plain old boring.  The audience might have laughed one time, but that was it.

Save your money and go see Wall-E instead!  But if you need to see the trailer, here it is below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx2G3qNkcaE]

2 Docs You Gotta See 2 Believe

Jun 28

metalman777documentaries, videos air guitar nation, documentary, king of kong, movies No Comments

I’ll be the first to admit my geekdom.  I love Battlestar Galactica, still read comic books, play video games, and love heavy metal music.  Oh yeah, and I’m 35 years old and I have a few grey hairs.

As the years pass, I wonder if my maturity level is on par with my age.  Aren’t I supposed to be a suit wearing, 9-5 working, adult who has it all together at this age?  After seeing these two documentaries, I realize I’m doin’ just, fine thank you very much.

The first documentary is entitled The King of Kong: A Fitstful of Quarters.  This movie highlights the video game career of two very different individuals.  Billy Mitchell set the world record for Donkey Kong back in 1982.  That record stood tall until Steve Wiebe broke it.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=YPLjXjObEms]

One Amazon.com reviewer had this to say:

This is one of those movies you watch in delighted disbelief, marveling that such people exist–and that they gladly allowed themselves to be filmed. Director Seth Gordon does an important thing in presenting this world of eccentrics: he doesn’t mock them, or provide editorial nudging; he simply lets them be. The result is an ingratiating classic.

I could not agree more!  How could grown men be so obsessed with a video game?  The one thing this movie does is make you feel relieved you are not that weird.

Air Guitar Nation is another documentary in the same vein as The King of Kong.  This time video games are replaced with the obsession to become a psuedo-rockstar via air guitar.

Amazon.com says:

Is it a sport? A game? An artform? It may be hard to define, but it’s easy to see that air guitar is a lot of fun and immensely entertaining, and so is director Alexandra Lipsitz’s Air Guitar Nation, an utterly charming documentary about the young men (and a few women) who in 2003 competed both at home and abroad to determine whose “airness” would rule.

I’m still left speechless after watching Air Guitar Nation.  I almost thought it was a spoof movie like Spinal Tap!  Sadly, that is not the case.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ea32R_2jSxg]

C-Diddy and Bjorn Turoque (Born ToRock) battle for the American Air Guitar Championship that is held annually in Finland.

I love music; I love metal guitar and yes, I do air guitar when no one is looking.  I just never thought of it as an artform to be taken seriously!

If you have a couple of hours to waste, you might like these movies.  They definitely shine a light on an entirely different culture of people!

Iron Man is a must see!

May 18

metalman777movies, videos Iron Man, movies No Comments

Just saw Iron Man and it was phenomenal!!  Really leaves you wanting more.  Lots of action, great metal soundtrack and Robert Downey Jr. totally nails Tony Stark’s character.

If you love comic book movies, this one is one of the best….I’d rate it number 3, with Batman Begins number 1 and Spiderman 2 in second place.

Here is the trailer, just in case you haven’t seen it yet:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA]

Two For The Conspiracy Theorists

May 15

metalman777Life, documentaries, movies conspiracy theories, documentary, movies No Comments

I’m starting to turn into a documentary nut!  I love Netflix and the fact they have soooooo many great documentaries to choose from.

This go around, I picked out two that I had seen before (but twas a long time ago and I didn’t remember them that well). 

Did We Go? was directed by Aron Ranen and in it he tries to prove that the Apollo Moon Landing actually happened.  The film summary is this:

A tongue-in-cheek documentary explores the controversial conspiracy theory that asserts that, in 1969, U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke the famous words “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” from an earthbound film set, not the moon. In investigating the claims of an Apollo 11 hoax, Ranen uncovers a KKK faction at the Kennedy Space Center, slave-owning Nazis, hippies, soused space cowboys and more.

You probably laugh, as I did!  But I’ll be darned if this documentary makes you think “that could totally be possible!”  I had no idea of the Nazi connection to our space program and that is actually very well documented. 

The next film to watch is entitled “The Who Killed the Electric Car?“.  In light of gas being over $4 a gallon here in California, this documentary is a must see.

Amid ever-increasing gas prices, this documentary delves into the short life of the GM EV1 electric car — once all the rage in the mid-1990s and now fallen by the roadside. How could such an efficient, green-friendly vehicle fail to transform our garages and skies? Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned celebs (such as EV1 driver Mel Gibson), Chris Paine (former EV1 owner) seeks to answer the question.

I’ve heard  of the carburetor that gets over 100 miles a gallon on late not AM radio shows.   I very much believe that the big oil companies have bought that patent and are sitting on it. 

Who Killed the Electric Car is a good film.  It tries to resolve the mystery of why GM would pull such a popular car that was loved by its owners, was very cost effective and very environmentally friendly.

I’m not a big believer in global warming, but I know that all our car emissions are harmful for the air we breathe.  Why kill production on a car that has zero emissions and runs as fast as a regular car?

So, if you have just a hint of conspiracy theorist in you, in know you’ll enjoy these two documentaries.  If you have seen ‘em, comment and let me know what you think!

The Movie You Should Rent This Weekend

Apr 18

metalman777Life, movies, music august rush, movies, music No Comments

Time to watch movies has been very hard to find lately. Life and all of its general chaos just steals it away.

I was fortunate enough this last week to see one great movie! I have to qualify the meaning of “great”. Some movies are great, say, like The Transformers. Awesome action and explosions and computer animation. Great in every sense of the word.

Then there are movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy which transcend normal story telling devices and are in every way epic. The settings are exotic and the characters are foreign and story speaks to our heart.

The movie that captured my attention and touched my spirit was August Rush.  Here is the official review by amazon.com:

Music has long been considered a universal language with the power to bring people together, but can the simple act of playing music possibly unite a child with a mother and father who live in two different cities and don’t even know of the child’s existence? Having shared one extraordinary night, classical cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and Irish singer and songwriter Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were a union meant to be that was torn apart by circumstances and a protective father (William Sadler). After eleven years, both Lyla and Louis have given up performing only to find that they are unhappy and searching for a sense of fulfillment that will ultimately lead both artists back to music and performing. Evan (Freddie Highmore) is an 11-year old orphan who’s grown up hearing music in everything around him and is convinced that his real parents want him and will find him with the help of music. Driven by his innate musical genius and a powerful compulsion to perform before the world, Evan runs away from the orphanage and is initially taken in by a street man known as Wizard (Robin Williams) who encourages his musical talent and renames him August Rush and, later, by a local priest who arranges for August to receive a Julliard education. August is a child prodigy who excels beyond even the wildest expectations and earns the opportunity of a lifetime–a chance to perform in front of an enormous audience in New York’s Central Park. The question is; can his performance possibly reach the audience August really craves? While elements of this film are completely unbelievable (take August’s instant prowess on the guitar or his immediate and sophisticated grasp of musical notation and musical theory), the message of the universality of music and the notion that “the music is all around us, all you have to do is listen” is both compelling and powerful. –Tami Horiuchi

With all that said, this movie is truly a homerun.  It has depth and feeling and brings the viewer into its world.  The movie does move at its own pace, winding slowly through August’s life and telling the tale of how his parents meet.  I’m a very huge fan of music, and this movie taps into that passion in a very big way.  August Rush is gifted in ways I would love to be.  He can hear music in everything, from wind moving the grass to the hum of power lines to the busy bustle of city life.  The music is in him, seeking to be released.

As I said earlier, this movie moves me in a couple of different ways.  The romantic in me can feel the gut-level love that connects August’s parents.  Once that love is gone, it extinguishes everything, and their passion for the music that expresses how they feel is sadly gone.  To love someone that deeply is a gratifying and mystical experience. 

Then, of course, the music of this movie is stupendous.  The producers created something truly magical.  Most of the music is classical in nature, but it maginifies and personifies the prodigy of August Rush.  I love the scene where August’s mom is playing her cello with fierce passion and the director overlays August’s dad playing his rocking love song so the two songs become one.  It is truly touching.

I downloaded the soundtrack this morning and have been listening to it all day.  It really captures to magnificence of the movie.  A lot of gospel, light rock, classical and jazz fused togethter for a wonderful listening experience.

So, to sum it all up:  if you love music, and you love movies that capture that mystical experience called love – then you should just go buy this movie!

It is family friendly, with maybe one or two minor curse words, but I’d let my kids (13, 11, and 9) watch it without hesitation.

2008 Summer Movie Posters and Trailers

Mar 15

metalman777movies 2008, movies No Comments

[CLICK HERE TO SEE 2009 MOVIE POSTERS AND TRAILERS]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=WaIR9dAZRR0]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pC96tIhLDN0]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=k6d1M6FprKs]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=FtBU2yNludY]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=SDrAl9LfHRg]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=T78xuWTck8o]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=MQyYPP9zR7M]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=VqzYukVDqy4]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dn0uSgHNEHQ]