Monsters vs Aliens

Hi, I'm Bob."

Looking forward to this movie. With House, Jack Bauer, Elle Woods and Colbert, how can you go wrong? (famous last words...)

Rotten Tomatoes Best Animated Films

Here's an interesting take on the 50 Best Animated Films of all time. But really...Snow White #2? Really? With that grating little-girl voice that Snow White has? And don't get me started on her singing! I can't really argue with #1, although I think some of Pixar's later efforts are better.

My own personal top ten:

1. Spirited Away (#13) - an amazing ride through traditional Japanese folklore, subtly providing life lessons for both kids and adults. I must've watched this about a dozen times.
2. The Incredibles (#11) - superheroes! Pixar! What can possibly go wrong? It also helps that one of my former co-workers looks like Edna Mode, and is married to someone who looks like Mr. Incredible.
3. Flight of Dragons (not in the list) - why can't they put this on DVD?
4. Transformers: The Movie (not in the list) - what thirtysomething geek can't quote at least one line from this movie? Heck, Dirk Diggler knew "The Touch".
5. Howl's Moving Castle (#41) - another Miyazaki film. Dude's a genius.
6. Finding Nemo (#6) - I love the ocean and all the creatures that reside in it. Also, as a dad, this movie always makes me tear up *sniff*
7. Lilo and Stitch (#42) - some people probably don't like Stitch and find Lilo annoying. I don't; I find the titular characters extremely funny. I'm probably in the minority.
8. Sleeping Beauty (#45)- probably the best of the "classic" Walt Disney. It's a bit annoying though how they keep re-releasing it as a super-duper-deluxe-edition. Enough already!
9. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (#18) - stop-motion animation at its best. The Wrong Trousers was better, with the malevolent penguin, but this was still quite entertaining its own way.
10. Akira (#35)- yeah, it's a bit overrated. But the storyline is pretty cool, and is quite the cautionary tale.

A bit hard to whittle it down, and some I can interchange (Toy Story, The Iron Giant, Kung-Fu Panda). Heck, I'll probably have a different list tomorrow.

Wii Fit!

So after months of giving up on ever getting a Wii Fit until the girls began dating, I managed to find one at Target. I actually saw the Wii Fit in the display case on Friday, but the salesperson refused to sell to me, telling me to come back on Sunday. Well, Sunday came, and I woke up late. I went to Target, thinking it was impossible to find one there; fortunately, I was successful. I was probably the fifth person there, and managed to snag one. Hooray!

What did irk me was the fact that there must have been six or seven people there, all related, buying a Wii and/or a Wii Fit to later sell for profit. Must have been frustrating for the manager, as it was a way to circumvent the "one unit per customer to prevent eBaying" rule. Oh well.

I think Nintendo's beginning to produce a bit more of the Wii Fit, in anticipation of the holidays. So keep hanging around Targets if you want to get one!

Sinfest on the US Elections

Linkie: Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig

Sometimes I'm really impressed by Tatsuya Ishida's work; he can gently poke fun at everyone--Christians, athiests, politicos--without really insulting anyone. Here he's in fine form--he sure does give that whole "lipstick on a pig" farce a new meaning, huh?

Stupid Girl (redux)

We were watching the season premiere of Sarah Connor Chronicles today and heard someone who sounded suspiciously like Shirley Manson singing over the action in the opening sequence.

Sure enough, it was her. Not only that, she now has an important role in the series! Huh.

Unfortunately, age has taken its toll, so she's not quite as attractive as she was during her Queer/Stupid Girl/Only Happy When It Rains days. In fact, her face looked a little bit...stretched. Her acting skills also left a bit to be desired--she was a bit wooden, a bit...robotic, if you will. Right now she's the weak link in an excellent ensemble cast.

Maybe she'll improve, though. After all, Lena Headey was pretty bad in the first couple of episodes too, but she gradually grew into her role.

Oh, and Summer Glau still rocks, and is strangely hot, despite the forehead.

ABBA Twins, Part 1

Somehow, the girls have become huge fans of ABBA, after watching the movie "Mamma Mia!". We can't go anywhere now without them requesting that we play the CD. Here's a clip of them singing the title song.

Of Phelps and Tinfoil Hats

Phelps finally won his eighth gold today, but everyone's still talking about the seventh race. One person has even gone so far as to create a website called 001ofasecond.com to decry the "Phelps Conspiracy". As with most tinfoil wearing denizens, he cherry picks his evidence. That leading photo? Taken from the fourth photo in SI's "Frame By Frame" sequence. What he conveniently left out was the fifth photo...oh, and don't forget the sixth photo, a blowup of Cavic's hands not quite touching the pads.

I personally think Phelps won...because of his freakish wingspan. But that's just one man's humble opinion. I'm certainly not going to go and create a website to proclaim it. No, I'll just blog about it! =P

Yet Another Dark Knight Review

A lot of times you get so worked up about a movie, only to find that it doesn't quite live up to the hype. Generally, I try to avoid reading about a movie I'm interested in, because I'm worried about being disappointed, but in this case, you couldn't avoid stories about how great this movie was.

Unfortunately, I wound up being disappointed. Just a wee bit, but disappointed, nonetheless.

Oh, it was a good movie, don't get me wrong; Calai was right, Ledger's performance was so utterly convincing that you forget that he actually did something as silly as First Knight. Ledger's Joker was funny, creepy, frightening...everything Nicholson's version wasn't. I also loved how he was prepared for everything and how Batman wasn't (thus turning the Internet meme on its head); heck, I found myself applauding how successful his plans were; if he wasn't truly and utterly amoral, I may have rooted for him to actually win over the dour and brooding Batman. I especially loved how he had a different story about how he got his scars, depending on who he was accosting at that point.

So what was the problem? I wasn't completely drawn into the movie. Part of it was my fault; I was bothered by Batman's raspy voice for one thing (get a cough drop already!), but this was due to the fact that several people had already pointed this one out. Another thing that jarred me was Richard Alpert playing the mayor--I kept thinking he needed to go back to the Island. Consequently, I saw Christian Bale playing Batman instead of seeing Batman. I saw Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Two Face, Lucius Fox and Rachel Dawes. Fortunately, Ledger, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine disappeared into their roles, so it wasn't a complete loss. Then there was the running time. It dragged in a couple of places, causing me to wonder when it was going to end, which is typically a bad sign for a movie.

It wouldn't be difficult for me to say that Ledger saved this movie. Without him, this would've been Just Another Superhero Movie, despite it being Batman; I actually liked Iron Man
better.

As for the third film? Well, if they could bring The Dark Knight Returns (Batman vs Superman!) or Knightfall (Azrael!) to the big screen, I would be a very happy man. It'll be hard to top Ledger's performance, though.

(oh, and that wasn't Kingpin, Calai. Kingpin is from Daredevil; I think they just wanted the image of a big, menacing figure with a conscience)