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Yesterday I finally got to see the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace. I’ll hold off on any deep review because I hate spoilers as much as the next guy. However I will say that it has taken Bond films in a whole new direction. Quantum is really unlike any other Bond movie you’ve ever seen. It does not feature a visit to Q branch, there really are no gadgets (even his beautiful armor and smoke bomb less Aston Martin gets badly beat up before the credits), there is no Money Penny, and not even an order for a vodka martini. Yet as someone who has been watching Bond movies as long as I can remember I have to say I loved it.

Recently the film Righteous Kill was released in theaters. Now let me start by saying that I’ve not yet seen it, I’m planning on it, but not yet. It stars two actors you may have heard of; Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. These two are widely acknowledged as two of the “greatest” actors of our time. Since this movie was announced I though, “Yeah they’re good, but are they really the greatest?” I’d have to say no.

As I write this I have IMDB open in another window and am looking at their filmographies. While both have some truly brilliant films in their repertoire; Raging Bull, Serpico, Godfathers 1-3 (yes I count 3 as brilliant), Awakenings, and Scent of a Woman etc etc. I probably didn’t list some that you may enjoy, but between the two they’ve acted in round about 100 movies. However while they have many great films, there are lots of bad movies among the list where they both seem to only be playing themselves, or some variation on themselves. I realize that many actors, in fact many of my favorite actors regularly play the same character over and over again. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if we are going to call someone “Greatest” then they should really earn the title.

Tags: Al Pacino, batman begins, fifth element, filmographies, Gary Oldman, Harry Potter, movies, raging bull, righteous kill, Robert De Niro, scent of a woman, Serpico

(Good News my father is doing much better, and should be able to go home in a few days. He had the best kind of inter cranial hemorrhaging. So I thought I’d post an additional slightly more light post as well)

Let me get it out of the way first. I am a staunch heterosexual. I like girls. I once broke my own hand over a girl I fancied who wasn’t even my girlfriend (ask Zuke he tried to set the bone, with emphasis on tried). However despite this I have to admit that I have a bit of a man crush. I’ve narrowed them down to my top 3. (Don’t worry my wife already knows). So in no particular order:

Tags: Adam Baldwin, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, celebrity crush, Chuck, Firefly, geeks, heterosexual, People, Serenity, Tom Brady

Nothing really geeky has jumped out at me this week, so this will again be a slightly atypical Droids post. However don’t worry it won’t be another political rant. Based on the number of responses to my comments following the DNC I’m guessing the average geek isn’t very politically interested, aside from Zohner.

Yesterday I received a call from my sister informing me that our father was in the hospital. A little more than a year and a half ago my dad had a heart attack. Following this he began to take, among many other medications, blood thinners. Some time within the last week or so a blood vessel burst in his brain, causing the area surrounding his brain to begin filling with blood. This resulted in added pressure on his brain, that caused sever headaches and short term memory loss. Dad was taken to the hospital where doctors literally had to drill a hole in his head to relative the pressure. According to them he’s going to be alright.

Tags: blood vessel burst, brain, dad, doctors, hero, loving parents, short term memory loss

Before you get to excited let me clarify. This is not a review of Mel Gibson’s 2000 film. Nor is it my pitch for the sequel, What Men Want, because I quickly realized the answer was “Boobs”, and didn’t really think that could be stretched to feature length. It’s also not my editorial on what makes a successful husband, though as a psychologist I’ve thought about doing just that. No this is my quest to answer one of the great mysteries of the 21st century. What do women want in a video game? This is up there with who shot JFK, and why Reggis Philbon has a career, for the great questions of life. So I thought I’d give it a go.

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts Tags: comic books, girl gamers, video games, world of warcraft

After last weeks Democratic convention I became motivated. Motivated to register, and to vote. To actually learn more about what is going on in the world around me. Then the morning after Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech another bombshell was dropped. The Republicans, the Grand Old Party of old white men named a 44 year old 1st term Alaskan Governor as the Vice Presidential nominee to a man who is 72 years old, and has had cancer. Granted it was skin cancer, but cancer is cancer.

Tags: Abraham Lincoln, acceptance speech, barack obama, christian fundamentalist, democratic convention, financial collapse, four more years, government spending, presidential nominee, senator mccain, Teddy Roosevelt

Throughout all of geek history their have been the great debates. Who would win in a fight, Mighty Mouse or Superman? What’s the better time machine, the Delorean or the Tardis? Which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek? [Editor: could Pikachu ever battle Raiden?] I will not really be answering any of these questions, but I will be taking a look at a different side of the third question.

Let me come right out and say it, the new Clone Wars movie was good. Provided you take it for what it is. It is not Episode 2.5, it is not a stand alone movie. It is a straight to DVD quality movie that is intended to act as an introduction to a new Saturday morning cartoon. As such you have to hold it in the same light as Star Wars: Ewoks, and Star Wars: Droids. Now that’s out of the way.

Tags: comics, delorean, expanded universe, geeks, Gene Roddenberry, george lucas, John Lennon, mighty mouse, movies, Raiden, star trek, Star Wars, star wars droids, star wars ewoks, superman, tardis, video games

Anyone who has watched the FOX network in the last few years has been burned numerous times by their cancellation policy. FOX seems to work on the idea of “If we make it, we must cancel”. Last year they spent about six months advertising a new show starring Nathan Fillion called Drive. Six months of ads lead to three aired episodes. I”m sure there are many blogs out there who still can’t get over the cancellation of Firefly, and many other. FOX is famous for launching a dozen new shows, and canceling all of them by seasons end. In the last few years I think the only shows that have made it are House, and 24. As I sit here I’m watching a show that met a similar fate, so I thought I’d talk about a few that I liked that never made it.

Tags: Aaron Sorkins, adventures of brisco county, bounty hunter, brisco county jr, bruce campbell, cancellation policy, Charles S. Dutton, Firefly, FOX, fox network, jeffery donovan, nathan fillion, Peter Dinklage, police drama, sci fi, Sportsnight, Television, touching evil, West Wing, x files

As Zuke recently pointed out I tend to leave comments on posts that are long enough to be posts themselves. So on this one I decided to just write my remarks out as a full blown rant.

I realize that as a grown man of 64 George Lucas does not need me to protect his honor. I’m sure that internet posters ripping everything he’s done with the Star Wars license since 1983 doesn’t keep him up nights. Nor does he care that some think his recent efforts have been the worst betrayal of holy work since Judas Iscariot. While I, as with most of the interweb, have not always loved everything that has come out of the “House That Skywalker” built, I have really liked most of it. I loved Episode I. While I don’t think that it was entirely necessary, and could have probably been done better as the first 30 minutes of Act 1, it did a good job (Though that’s a post for another time). As a movie with slightly more hype than the Second Coming, there is no way it could have lived up to expectations. Despite this I think he did a great job. Same with the next two prequels. I think that Episode III was one of the finest big CG movies ever, and anyone who says they didn’t get a major fanboy stiffy during both the first space battle, and the final saber duel, is lying through their Cheetos encrusted teeth.

A few years ago my friends and I got into a game of geek one upsmenship. We began to compare our respective levels of geek bling. Who had the best computer, most video games, etc. For years I had a +5 to my looser rating for being the lone single man. The +5 had some benefits, but they were far outweighed by the -42 Blue Balls.

Tags: blue balls, geek quotient, neo geo, video games, WoW