The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

So this past Tuesday I went to see Salt , not that I really had a choice. My mother and sister wanted to see Inception , of which I had seen twice already, and all that was left at the theater were a bunch of movies I had already seen, a bunch that I didn't want to see and then there was Salt . I knew just about nothing about the movie except that it was about spies and that it had Angelina Jolie. And as I sat in the theater waiting for the movie to start, I remembered that I saw the trailer months ago. And in fact, I remembered there was a brief scene in the trailer for a third of a second, that showed the great curve of Angelina Jolie's butt [ side note: isn't that subliminal marketing? I watched the trailer months ago, and this scene was no more than a second, yet it was ingrained in my memory]. Anyhow, I thought to myself, okay, at least there's that to look forward to. But when the movie reached its end, the scene never occurred. The old bait and switch! Any...

I wanted to make sure I had two viewings before I wrote about this movie. I originally saw it early last week but came out of it confused mostly because of the first chunk of the movie. At first I thought that it was something intentional, but during my second viewing, I paid closer attention to the series of scenes that made up the first 45 minutes or so, and realized that it wasn't meant to be confusing at all. So I guess on that first time I was either too tired or it was too late of a show... but probably both. As much as I dislike 20th Century Fox and those monkeys there, I love Warner Bros., their goons, and the way they think (monkeys against the goons). Pretty much after the success of The Dark Knight , they cut Nolan a blank cheque and said, go to town! And so to town he went to create this psychological blockbuster that he dreamt up 10 years ago — Inception be thy name! I'm going to skip the story, because: a.) you've watched it already and b.) if you haven...

Yes, at least thus far. At the very least, this is my favourite movie this year as of publishing date. I'm convinced that if one day Pixar were to do live action movies, that they would succeed as much as their animated features. Why do I think that? Clearly, they excel at storytelling; animated or not, it's what makes or breaks a movie. And this is why I love Toy Story 3 so much — it tells a good story. The movie follows our favourite group of toys led once again by Woody as they struggle to survive the test of time. With each passing day is another moment they miss being played by or even noticed by their owner Andy, now heading off to college. After a freak mix-up, the group of toys, sans Woody, find themselves at a local daycare, which on the onset, appears to be akin to a retirement home for toys. But the truth is soon revealed and the toys find themselves ruled under a tyrannical stuffed bear who lock them up like prisoners. Can Woody save his friends from the greasy f...

Finally, a good Predators sequel! I guess I should forgive 20th Century Fox. I've heard stories of how they're bumbling idiots, especially that fool Tom Rothman who's at the top of the monkey chain over there. And heck, he's probably still an idiot, so I'll partially forgive them for ruining some great movie franchises. But to their credit, at least one of the monkeys over there had the foresight and knowledge to recognize that they shit the bed with the Aliens VS Predators franchise, effectively ruining two highly regarded series in the geek community. So whoever it was up there realized that they needed to wash away people's memories of that hogwash. And so after deciding that the series needed a refocus, they went to a geek favourite to remedy their mistakes: Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez was originally tapped to breathe in new life into the franchise, but because of scheduling conflicts (his work on Machete ) he oversaw the project as a producer at his Tro...

DINOCROC VS SUPERGATOR!!! Because why not! This one will surely be etched into the annals of cinematic history. I was tempted to write about Toy Story 3 which I watched earlier this week, but it would be folly of me to not touch this first. I'll save TS3 for next week as a summer bonanza themed week which should include some combination of A-Team , Predators and Inception . But before I talk about this movie, I should get something off my chest. You see, I'm confused. I obviously can't hold this movie up to the same standards as I would with something like Apocalypse Now or The Godfather . With titles like The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It or Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned , it's obvious that they don't stand under the same light. So with DTV movies like this, I'm left with no other choice but to create a second standard. So I've thought long and hard about it and I boiled it down to one crite...

In Columbine , author Dave Cullen seeks to tell the story of the 1999 Columbine school shootings as accurately as possible. He does this after spending 10 years on research; going through interviews, reviewing 25,000 pages worth of documentations and journals, and even going through the video tapes and diaries of the killers. All that effort was culminated into this book that depicts the incident, and everything leading up to it, with great and alarming detail. I first heard about this book from Slapinions and after his glowing review of the book, I decided I'd be interested in such a reading. I hunted the book down at the library and I'm glad that I did. This was a good read. Cullen takes a great unbiased look at the incident, neither condemning or blessing any sides. Rather, he throws the facts out there and just allows the reader to envelope themselves in the situation. Cullen has this great way of painting the scenes in such a way that we can know and feel as much as p...

So Spain won the 2010 edition of the World Cup yesterday. It was pretty crazy in downtown Toronto, with tons and tons of (supposedly) Spanish people celebrating their country's victory. It was an interesting night at church too. You see, the building we're at is located on College St. between Spadina and Bathurst... right between where all the celebrations were going on. So we had hooting, hollering, vuvuzelas and car honks going non-stop during the church service. It was quite a spectacle. I asked my friend Bryn why was it that this street block had all the activity (it is not a blatantly heavy Spanish area). He told me that there's a big Spanish restaurant in the area which I guess drew the crowd. Pretty amazing though. Me and my friend Jon were greeters at the door, and as soon as the game ended, almost on cue, hordes and hordes of people came from all directions onto the street block. Pretty amazing. We were aptly prepared though. Just before the game ended, we wr...

First thing's first. When the trailers first came out late last year, it boggled my mind. First of all, the movie is called Karate Kid ... karate... a Japanese style of martial arts, which would be fine except that the movie seemingly took place in China. So, okay, I thought, maybe they would relate to karate in someway during the movie... yet during the trailer, all they talked about was Kung Fu (the Chinese form of martial arts). Uh, brain, are you there, hello? So unfortunately, there is no explanation (at least in context of the movie) of why they called it Karate Kid . The kid learns kung fu and all they talk about is kung fu. As I watched the movie, I thought they'd throw in a joke about karate, but none would be had. As I recall, the word karate wasn't even used once. So in conclusion, it was just a business maneuver to capture that nostalgia market. I mean, would it be a stretch to call the movie "Kung Fu Kid". I'm sure that the nostalgic demog...

This past weekend, a bunch of us at FT went camping on the grounds of Grafton, Ontario. It was a great weekend for camping as the weather was perfect; sunshine all around. It was hot but thankfully, never unbearably hot. It was a good time of relaxing, connecting and reflecting. We played a lot of this party game called Werewolves (also known as Mafia), which I think is my new favourite party game, or at least up there. If you've never played it, then I suggest you gather a group of friends and try it. It is a game of trust, deceit and manipulation... but all in good fun! Anyhow, I had a great time. Check out the slideshow at the bottom. Later geeks!