RPG Withdrawal
July 29, 2006
I watched Lord of the Rings the other day, and I started to really miss my D&D group. That’s a nerdy compliment to my RPG friends back home. And then Dave came by with Superman Returns, and even though it wasn’t so great, I started to miss playing Abberrent. Evan, my old GM, would never had allowed such a lame storyline in one of our games! Dave still owes me 5 jiao for guessing the ending.
So today, when I was in Dave’s DVD store and I saw the sequel to the D&D movie… I just had to pay the 5 kwai and go home to watch my gaming movie.
When will I learn my lesson about sequels? I mean, the original D&D movie was barely worth watching, and that was only because I had a crowd of nerds. This time, it was The opening sequence is a lot like the opening sequence of LOTR, only terrible. It’s almost a parody, but parodies are usually funny. Here is a sample of the narration:
I, the evil villian of this piece, am undead, which means I’m not alive any more but I’m still alive and thinking of ways to ruin the protagonists’ lives. I am after an orb of power which will enable to me CONTROL THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!
“An artifact of extreme power? I bet the GM’s girlfriend has it.” I said. My coffeetable thought this was very funny, but unfortunately it responded to this, and all my other witty comments, with resounding silence.
Then later on:
Mages like me use arcane magic, which means we study and read old books. There’s also divine magic which comes direct from the gods. I took that as my restricted school, but if I pick up the Mountain Dew for next week’s game, I bet the GM will let me.
Unfortunately I have no other quotes because I had to turn it off.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (PG-13: 2006)
July 25, 2006
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My Super Ex-Girlfriend (PG-13: 2006) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465624/ Directed by Ivan Reitman Starring: Uma Thurman …. Jenny Johnson/G-Girl, Luke Wilson …. Matt Saunders, Anna Faris …. Hannah Lewis, Rainn Wilson …. Vaughn Haige, Eddie Izzard …. Professor Bedlam/Barry, and more … A architect planner on the rebound meets a shy librarian type on the subway only to discover too late that she’s neurotic, jealous, and possessive … and a super-heroe with a temper. Its a comedy about the antics he has to go through in order to break up with her and follow his passion for his true love, his co-worker, whom G-Girl is only too dangerously on a rampage about. Teaming up with G-Girl’s arch-nemesis and ex-boyfriend from high school, the antics increase on a superman parody rip-off. The movie has its moments, but overall, wait until dvd before watching this one. Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5. (and that’s being kind) |
Lady in the Water (2006: PG-13)
July 25, 2006
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Lady in the Water (PG-13: 2006) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452637/ Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Starring: Paul Giamatti …. Cleveland Heep, Bryce Dallas Howard …. The Lady - Story, Jeffrey Wright …. Mr. Dury, Bob Balaban …. Harry Farber, Sarita Choudhury …. Anna Ran, Cindy Cheung …. Young-Soon Choi Its an ancient faerie tale/fable brought to life in the modern age, about a nymph who lives in a cave beneath a apartment complex swimming pool … she is discovered by the caretaker and rescued from the evil creatures that want to keep her trapped in her cave …. but she has a destiny to fulfill, and she needs the key human guides to help her with her transition and keep her safe. With the guidance of fabled bedtime stories and some theatrical insights from the tenants of the complex, the struggle to make her flight, is more than difficult in an otherworldly manner. Its a great faeid tale of a nymph needing to cross between the gates. Shymalan doesn’t disappoint in his great history of tales. Rating: 4 stars out of 5. |
Two Surprising Movie Flops: My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Lady In The Water
July 24, 2006
Well title is a little misleading. The two movies I’m talking about is of course Super Ex-Girlfriend and Lady in the Water. M. Night Shyamalan tale of a woman from an underwater world seemed like a stinker to me and I refused to let ANYONE drag me to see it. I was therefore not the bit surprised to see that it sunk at the box office.
What did surprise me was that My Super Ex-Girlfriend fell out of the sky as well. Not to many people liked this movie but I went to see it anyway and was stunned that this comedy? was not very funny at all. The comedic scenes such as Uma Thurman tossing a shark through the window in the trailer really is one of the few funny moments of the movie.
Even people who thought the movie was ok said that they thought it was fine but not 
something they would buy on tv or watch again. I don’t know what their definition of fine is but that doesn’t sound like a movie most would run to see from that review.
With a great cast (Uma Thurmas, Luke Wilson) and a great sounding plot I would have thought box office gold, if not platinum. To be fair both of these had to contend with the biggest blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean, but that doesn’t change that fact that the movie was a C average at best and D- at worst.
The Devil Wears Prada (PG-13; 2006)
July 22, 2006
The Devil Wears Prada (PG-13; 2006)
Starring:
Meryl Streep …. Miranda Priestly; Anne Hathaway …. Andy Sachs; Emily Blunt …. Emily; Stanley Tucci …. Nigel; Adrian Grenier …. Nate; Tracie Thoms …. Lilly; and many more …
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/
Young Andy, straight out of Northwestern, looking for her big ‘publishing’ job, finds her way into the prestigious fashion industry and magazine “Runway” for an interview with the famous Miranda Priestly. |  |
Not having a clue who Miranda is, or any sense of fashion, she somehow sparks attention to Miranda to find the interview successful and leading into a career that would change her life so-to-speak as she became assistant to the Devil Dragon Lady of the Fashion Industry. She goes from being fashion-less to being a fashion queen in a reality wake up to deciding this is her career and that she needs to pursue it with full effort. Her stress, emotions, attitude, friends, and boyfriend all change focus as she falls into the beck n’ call of her new boss even to the detriment of her personal life. When she realizes that the devil has made her compromise her ethics and morals, she regains strength and takes back her life, and follows her dreams. Inspirational and humorous - its a great show. Rating 4 stars out of 5.
The Best “Twists”…
July 18, 2006
Like movies with a twist? Then you’re in luck–here are the top ten movies with twist endings:
10. “The Others” (2001)
9. “Suspicion” (1941)
8. “Charade” (1963)
7. “Psycho” (1960)
6. “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957)
5. “Unbreakable” (2000)
4. “Oldboy” (2003)
3. “The Crying Game” (1992)
2. “Fight Club” (1999)
1. “Les Diaboliques” (1955)
Honorable Mentions included “Jacob’s Ladder,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Angel Heart,” and “Planet of the Apes.”
(From an article by film writer Kim Morgan at MSN Movies.)
Pi (1998: R)
July 16, 2006
Pi (1998, R)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/
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A tale of physics and madness, as a paranoid mathematician seeks to discover the key number that will unlock the universe and its patterns found in nature … following the clues in the stock market, Maximillian Cohen stumbles upon the wild spiral that is the analysis of Pi, going through its occurrences in nature, the Qabalah, and mathematics. Haunted by the government, his mad professor, his seductive neighbor, and the ants that crawl in his transistors and brain …. madness ensues over this number analysis. Excellent movie … rating: 4 stars out of 5. |
Pirates of the Carribean II: Dead Man’s Chest (PG-13: 2006)
July 16, 2006
Pirates of the Carribean: II - Dead Man’s Chest (2006 PG-13)
| http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383574/ Starring: Johnny Depp …. Jack Sparrow; Orlando Bloom …. Will Turner; Keira Knightley …. Elizabeth Swann; Jack Davenport …. Norrington; Bill Nighy …. Davy Jones; Jonathan Pryce …. Governor Weatherby Swann; Lee Arenberg …. Pintel. Directed by Gore Verbinski; Writing credits (WGA) Ted Elliott (written by) & Terry Rossio (written by).The Sequel to Pirates of the Carribean, Captain Jack Sparrow goes on a quest to repay an old “debt” with Davy Jones and his sea-phantom crew who wants Sparrow’s soul in addition to 99 other souls to join his army of the sea. Terrorized by the sea beast, finding Davy Jone’s locker, and searching out his heart … its a maddening tale of love, adventure, and high sea plight and fight for survival to prevent Captain Jack Sparrow’s demise. Not as good as the first movie, and leaving room for a third, I have some mixed feelings about the movie even though I enjoyed it greatly. Rating 4 stars out of 5. |
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Best of Niner Niner July 06
July 13, 2006
Niner Niner, a collaborative weblog network, has over 25 great blogs and this “Best Of” highlights just a few of the posts that were written by some of the Niner authors, in topics that range from High Heels, Ajax, HIPAA Privacy Regulation to gadgets, books and health.
In Ajax Blog, Sreejith introduces us to a few new things. First is Vox a new blogging service from Six Apart that uses WYSIWYG with a taste of web 2.0. After that we learn about Krun.ch and Wishlistr.
Blogging Naked: Scarification and lip plates are shown to be some of the newest and more popular form of “self-expression” in recent years.
Bookadoodle: Nancy Callahan posted more in her series “Getting Published” and this latest edition was part 5.
Boomer 2.0 had posts that pointed out that boomers can still have that second career and another that shows many are not even planning retirement anytime soon.
In Class Action Questions find out about lawsuits involving pyramid scams, hair raising beauty product claims and why State Farm was penalized.
Credit Cardenza: Unfortunately, millions of people are drowning in credit card debt, have to worry about credit scams and fraud, and let’s not even talk about the international fees.
Dealsneak managed to sneak more than a few deals pass us this summer including, the Samsonite laptop case, a gorgeous leather bench, and a sweet looking Thermaltake Tsunami computer case.
Feed Money discusses the fact the Ebay has jumped on the contextual ad bandwagon as well as blog feeds and a program called RSS To Blog.
If you need to Fix Your Finances one of the first steps is learning how to save your money. After that you can check out Mvelopes to learn all about budgets.
At Games For Money you can find places to play free online gambling games and also learn some card counting tricks and tips.
The High Heels Blogs show us which killer heels are on sale including boots, sandals, slides and mules. Also take a look at some killer wedding heels for this summers nuptials.
A few notable gadgets that were blogged in the HyperGadget blog were the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, and the jumbled and messy looking organizer.
Over at the Medcare Forum, Kathleen Milazzo tells us more about that scary mad cow disease and our medical privacy laws.
Find out just how much house you can afford before you go running off to get that mortgage. And is the housing bubble really ready to blow? All this and more in Mortgage Updates.
At My Secret Side Biz learn how to make a profit, how to get your own powerwash, and simple business and Ebay tips.
On Healthy Living: Sarah White tells us all about a new study that could help with asthma reduction when it comes to do light exercise that involves stead breathing like yoga.
On Movies has a decade of super heroes list that includes recent and unreleased movies. Leafworks reviewed The Omen and we got to see the trailer for the new Ghost Rider movie.
Powersellers Blog: Ebay has done it. They finally reached 200 million members and they are also expanding into new ideas. Also people are fed up with Paypal while crooks are finding more ways to defraud your account.
Seo Updates: Yahoo one of the biggest email services was hit with a worm and Google expanded into real estate but won’t be making a browser, at least not anytime soon.
Get some free exercise tips from The Diet Logs. You will certainly need them if you plan to take a bite of this $100 burger.
Living the Single life? Well take a look at some great break up lines and if your looking to meet people Leafworks posted a great review of club La Rumba.
Thumb Gods: Nintendo is no, no to the name Wii for their new console a game system that is at the end of this long list containing The Evolution of Video Game Consoles.
Las Vegas Revealed that it was ill prepared for a massive disaster, but til then you can still get married and get comp’d in Vegas.
Wander the World, well the State of Colorado with Leafworks. He takes us to the Cherry Blossom Festival, Gothnic in Denver, Old Colorado City, Plaza del Arte Festival in Downtown Denver and Garden of the Gods.
Click (2006: PG-13)
July 11, 2006
| Click (PG-13: 2006) Directed by Frank Coraci; Writing credits (WGA) Steve Koren (written by) & Mark O’Keefe (written by) Starring: Adam Sandler …. Michael Newman, Kate Beckinsale …. Donna Newman, Christopher Walken …. Morty, David Hasselhoff …. Ammer, Henry Winkler …. Ted Newman, Julie Kavner …. Trudy Newman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/ Adam Sandler plays Michael, a work-a-holic architect who is sooo obsessed with his work that he doesn’t pay attention to his family or his health, and trying to make life even more of a convenience, gets hooked up with a mystical remote control that allows him to fast forward, pause, and replay his life …. only to find it getting stuck and seeing his life pass before his eyes - not the screenplay he imagined. A good awakening for the work-a-holics out there and quite humorous of a movie. I’m not the biggest Adam Sandler fan, but he did an amazing job. Rating: 4 stars out of 5. |
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