The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

This post will be divided essentially into halves with the review and analysis. The review will be a typical affair while the analysis will be unleashing my inner geek on the movie. Review If there was one movie that I was meant to see this year, without a doubt it's Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler . This movie is a beautiful merger of two of the things I love - movies and prowrestling. Is it my favourite movie this year? Well, that's yet to be determined. With The Wrestler , Aronofsky has raised his own bar in crafting the tragic portrait of a professional wrestler. It's not about the glitz and glamour that one would come to mind when thinking of such superstars as Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, but rather about those forgotten stars who faded away in the 80's. This is the role that Rourke was meant to play if for no other reason than that his own life parallels that of his character Randy "The Ram" Robinson. They were both shining stars at the...

Of all of Fincher's films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is clearly his most emotional work to date. The story follows the life of one Benjamin Button - a man whose birth was both a miracle and disaster. He was mysterious born as an old man and soon discovers that he's aging backwards. The movie follows his life as he comes across new adventures and experiences along with the challenges of being different from everyone around him. The story is loosely adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name. I say loosely because although the concept of a man aging backwards is used, almost everything else was changed. Not a bad thing at all - I was wondering how they were going to expand a 14 page story into a nearly 3 hour film (I'm still meaning to write a review on his short stories book). Brad Pitt and David Fincher together is just money. They've had many successes in the past with Se7en , Fight Club , and now with Benjamin Button . There i...

My dad woke me up today with the delight of an XBox 360!! I've wanted one for about 2 years now and finally those dreams have come to fruition. It was on sale at Best Buy for $240, so hefty savings from the regular $300 retail price. My dad is pretty awesome for doing this, I didn't even really ask for it. After delivering it, he went back to work shortly after. Me and my brother ate some lunch and did some light Boxing Day shopping. I went to get Gears of War at Best Buy for $20 and my brother went to the wine store to buy 2 bottles of wine. As well, my sister, while out braving downtown Toronto with her friends, snagged a Super Mario Galaxy for $30 at HMV. What a glorious day at the Lam household for gaming!

Stay safe and happy!

Last night I was at the Eaton Centre and I stopped by Indigo to browse around. I ended up staying there for about 40 minutes reading a book about CSS and XHTML. After reading a bunch of their tutorials, I felt motivated to fix up my blog. Well, I feel accomplished today. I've been meaning to tweak my blog layout for a while, and finally I got around to doing it. Here are some changes: Move author name underneath the title Link the author name to my profile page Separate comments from categories Changed 'Categories' list to not display categories with only 1 post Merged post count and Archives list on to the same line and link Fixed some margins There are still a few things I want to tweak (notice the Archives list grey box?) but I'll have to read over stuff still. They sound like such simple things to do, but when you're such a n00b with CSS, it makes it all the more difficult. Anyhow, that's all. Later geeks.

My friend, Pastor James, sent me an e-mail in response to my review on Gran Torino, specifically in regards to his relationship with my young friend, DaYue. He speaks a truth that I can't deny - we need to outreach to the younger generation. He gave me permission to share this with you all, my faithful readers: "First I am deeply touched that you thought of me when you saw the movie. I think we as men of faith , have no other choice but to take our life experience and wisdom (really all the Holy Spirit's empowerment) and share it with a world that has grown so dark, is so far off track, is full of pseudo-families and pretend friends, and which has eviscerated our young men. Satan not only has made many of our families lack masculine leadership, but also many of our churches are lacking male headship as well. We need to stop this onslaught, even if it is with one guy. We need to do whatever possible to pour ourselves into the lives of others....as you have been pour...

A few prominent critics have weighed in their picks for the year's best movies. Ebert elected not to rank them this year, so here they are placed in alphabetical order: Ballast The Band’s Visit Che Chop Shop The Dark Knight Doubt The Fall Frost/Nixon Frozen River Happy-Go-Lucky Iron Man Milk Rachel Getting Married The Reader Revolutionary Road Shotgun Stories Slumdog Millionaire Synecdoche, New York W WALL-E His former reviewing partner, Richard Roeper published his top 25 list, as well as an assortment of other categories (full article here ). What I like is that Forgetting Sarah Marshall made it to his number 9 choice, so he gains lots of respect for that move. The rest of the list is as follows: Slumdog Millionaire The Dark Knight The Wrestler In Bruges I've Loved You So Long Gran Torino Milk The Visitor Forgetting Sarah Marshall Frozen River Doubt Snow Angels Frost/Nixon The Reader Seven Pounds Iron Man Vicky Cristina Barcelona W. Henry Poole Is Here Burn After Reading T...

From left to right: Sugar, Kenny, Bob, Matty, Susie Last night was the finale of Survivor: Gabon, and a bit lackluster if you ask me. So my three original choices from episode one were Kenny (The Gamer), Crystal (The Olympic Gold Medalist), and GC (The Token Brotha). Of my three choices, two of them made it to the final six, so not bad. Unforunately, neither of them would comprise the final three survivors. The final four comprised of Sugar (The Pin-Up), Bob (The Physics Teacher), Susie (The Invalid), and Matty (The Workhorse). It was so clear that if Bob made it to the final three, that he would win the million dollars as the jury was made up of people from his old tribe, and clearly people who would not vote for Sugar and Susie. The last elimination vote basically came down to Matty or Bob leaving. Originally, they were unanimous on voting Bob out, but for whatever dumbfuck reason, Sugar, who I think is clinically retarded, decides maybe she can vote for Matty bringing the eli...

Clint Eastwood's latest effort, Gran Torino, is quite a visceral powerhouse. He again proves why he's a master at his art in both directing and acting. The story follows his character, Kowalski, who is a hardened and calloused veteran who comes to grips with his mortality (note: I wonder if his name is in reference to Killer Kowalski, the great wrester of the 50s to 70s). He grunts and groans through half the movie, and who could blame him for being so grumpy... even his own kids treat him like shit. He begins to take down those walls after becoming friends with a young asian boy, Thao, a new neighbour of his. He makes it his goal to teach this boy how to become a man, and it's through this relationship that Kowalski becomes mixed up with the local ruffians that terrorize the neighbourhood. The trailer was a bit deceiving. The whole time I was expecting to see an hour and a half of Eastwood kicking some gangland ass, but this was not the case. Don't get me wrong, h...

Two documentaries in a row. Although Man on Wire is being touted as a favourite for an Oscar nomination and win, I much more enjoyed American Teen , one of the breakout films at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. By no means is this a great film or one that inspires hope like Man on Wire does, but this is still a damn enjoyable movie. The movie focuses on four teenagers in Warsaw, Indiana as they go through their final year of high school and of course we get to see all the drama that's related with it; there's the geek who's trying to find his true love and his identity, there's the artistic tortured soul who seeks to escape Indiana to live out her Hollywood dreams, there's the jock that lives with the pressure from his overbearing father, and finally the blonde bitchy "princess" who's the grade-A drama queen. That's all you really need to know as most of the joy is from watching their lives unfold. I guess it's similar to a lo...

Man On Wire is an auspicious documentary that follows a french man's dream of walking on a high wire between the World Trade Center in the 70's. It was quite an astonishing feat when it occured, making headlines worldwide. You need only Google the name Philippe Petit to find endless articles on all his high wire acts. The main story told is the WTC act, but stories of his other feats are also intertwined so that we get a sense of who he is and what other things he has accomplished. We discover that Philippe is a passionate man, one filled with hopes and dreams, and it was his dream as a young child to one day cross these immense towers... towers that at the time were not even constructed yet. The story is similar to something right out of a heist movie a la Ocean's 11 or The Bank Job , with a clearly defined goal outlined in the beginning and then quickly assembling a team of experts for each task that needs to be completed. As Philippe recounts the story, we are fille...

Ain't It Cool News posted their annual Christmas shopping guide, for things of all geekeries with my favourite this year being the Star Wars Darth Vader Toaster. There's not too much to explain, it burns a Darth Vader face onto your toast. I will buy this one day, oh yes I will. You can order one from the official Star Wars website found here . Later geeks.