Iron Man > Speed Racer > Mediocre

Image taken from Yahoo Movies


Mmmk. Hung out with my friend Chris for lunch and a movie. We went to Boom Noodle, which wasn't that great, but hat a hot bar tender, and then we went to see Speed Racer. I've never been attached to the Speed Racer cartoon, probably since it was a little before my time, but I know the characters and basic idea. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be terrible because let's face it, there's not a whole lot behind Speed Racer. The first half of the movie was heavy on the plot, and the acting wasn't that engaging so I got a little bored. BUT, the highlight of this movie is all the crazy CG, Mario Kart, acid trip race car driving. The last half of the movie is all crazy driving, and more dramatic plot, and much more fun. So I'd say the movie redeemed it's self. Also, I wouldn't recommend waiting to rent this, the whole point is seeing all the colors and bright lights huge.

Iron Man Review

Saturday night Tyler and I had some friends over for dinner at his house, after eating, and some geeking out (I'm really good at Meta-Knight!) we went and saw Iron Man. I had pretty low expectations since I've never really "gotten" Iron Man, and this is also a good time to point out that I know very little about the comics, so I'm really only looking at the movie as a movie. I loved it! The casting was excellent, the acting was good enough for me not to consider it an issue (that might mean amazing, but I don't know anything about acting either), and visuals were great. It's good to see that Robert Downey Jr. is no longer cracked out, and he's actually looking quite hot. I'm not going to summarize anything, because if you're at all interested in the plot of this movie, you should just go see it.

My only complaint, and it's something that applies to all action movies, is how black and white everything was. Tony Stark goes from being evil to being good, and he kills the bad guys, and there is no question as to weather or not they're bad. The US military gets a lot of screen time, and is obviously on the good side, while crazy Arabs in caves are on the bad side. This movie did nothing to help people get over the Arab terrorist stereo type. However, it's an action movie, that's supposed to make money, and let's face it, being super PC takes up a lot of time you could be blowing shit up. (and I hate myself for typing that.) I'm hoping in the sequels there's some good vs. evil struggles.

I'm sure could gush about this movie even more, but my bus will be here soon and I still need to pack up.

Pitotubes Review

I am trying really hard not to be bitter about this, but honestly I'm so ticked off about this product that I want to throw it in the trash.

Pitotubes are refillable travel bottles that use and airless pump to dispense your product. I've heard that high end cosmetic and personal care companies use these pumps because they help get all the product out. I first heard about these bottles back in 2006 in this CoolHunting.com post, "Cool" I though, but I'm not a jet setter so there is no need for me to have a set of travel bottles. Fast forward to now; I go to the gym three days a week, and I shower there. Dragging around an entire bottle of shampoo was getting out of hand, so I decided to find and buy the best leak proof product available, and I settled on Pitotubes. The bottles range in price from 5 to 10 dollars each, and you can get a set for 40-50. I don't think that's cheap, but I did my research and they came across as a quality product.

The bottles came, I filled them, and they worked great... for the first month. I'll get into my Pitodrama after I hash out the basics of this product. So, I really don't like the way these look. Maybe I'm conservative, but shampoo doesn't need to look like it's been flown in from the future. I do like how they work, as you pump out the whatever, the bottom of the bottle moves up with the liquid. I'm don't like the pumps much because they really force the whatever out, which can result in a mess, and you can't control the amount they pump out. This seems pretty excusable though, since all technology has it's limitations.

Here's what I really hate about Pitotubes: THEY BREAK. I started with six working bottles and three of them broke after about a month of regular, but not heavy, use. WTF?! I said and promptly emailed the company. I expect a travel bottle that costs 10 dollars to work for longer then two months. The back and forth I had with the rep was pleasant, and to her credit she really did cool off my bad mood and "fix" the situation. They sent replacements, and I sent back the broken bottles. The rep told me that it was bad luck and that they have a less then 2% return rate. Hmmm, well ok, as long as my overpriced, over-engineered hunk of plastic does it's job. Which of course it didn't. The new bottles are not starting to break.

I'm done with this company. They tried, I tried, and we obviously can't come to an agreement on what a quality product is. I will not being trying to get my broken bottles replaced again and there is no way in hell I would think about buying any product from this company again.

Here are some alternatives to Pitotubes that I think I'll try once the rest of the bottles crap out. (I haven't tried any of these, but they don't seem to have Pitotubes biggest failure, which is too many moving parts to break)

Silicon bottles by PKOH, a bit expensive, but how could a squeeze bottle break?
Nalgene set that I doubt is leak proof in air travel, but Nalgene does use some durable plastic.
Eagle Creek set I like that the bottle shape is a little less random then the Nalgene bottles.
PlasticTravelBottles.com not sure about the quality, but they certainly are cheap.

Audrey Kawasaki

I know this is going to sound super bitter, but I am over Audrey Kawasaki. I used to really like her work because it was esthetically pleasing and I guess the imagery was something that I felt some attachment to. Conceptually, her works never done anything for me, but when I first started seeing it that was ok. Kawasaki had a solo show opening over the weekend at Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica and pretty much every art blog I read creamed their pants over it. Here's the list of evidence: Boing Boing, Cool Hunting, Right Some Good, and NotCot.org. There's also an announcement and after opening post on Kawasaki's blog, but that can't be held against her or as a part of the collective cream. I think Kristen Anderson says it best (on Right Some Good), "More of the same of her slightly sinister, enigmatic girls, but so incredibly well done." Yes, Kawasaki is a great painter, but I'm sick of conceptually dead, pretty pictures. In the grand scheme of things, my opinion doesn't really matter, but some times you just have to bitch.

World War Z

I picked up a copy of World War Z (Amazon) yesterday. I'm 50 pages into the book, and I'm really disappointed. I'm not sure what possessed me to buy this book, but I should have looked into it a little more before spending money on it. It's written by Max Brooks, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide, and from what Tyler has told me WWZ is similar to how the history of zombies is written. WWZ is divided into sections, and each section is made up several page personal accounts of the stages of war with zombies. I wouldn't say the writing is bad, but this format for a full length book is a big turn off for me because you meet a different character in each account, you start to like them, then they're done and you never hear from them again. I like to get attached to characters, learn about them, and be sad when they bow out. This book is basically speed dating.

I don't think it's all bad though, the predictions Brooks makes about the future (right before the outbreak and after) are interesting. They follow how various countries rise to power, makes peace, and fall apart. It's also interesting to see how various people and organizations handle the idea of walking dead.

Thus far this book has made about the same impression as The DaVinci Code, which I hated. I don't think I'm going to hate WWZ but I doubt I would re read this, or recommend it to anyone but a zombie enthusiast.

Sweeney Todd Review

I saw "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" a few days ago with Tyler and his friends. I know nothing about the stage version, and the movie has it's weak points, but over all I enjoyed it.

Normally I'm a bit bothered by how often Tim Burton casts Johnny Depp, I think he's a fine actor, but I have a hard time separating Johnny Depp the person, Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissors Hands, and all the other weird characters he's played, they all kind of meld together and i start wondering where dreadlocks went. However, in "Sweeney Todd" this was not the case, Johnny Depp, though not a strong singer, plays an excellent Todd. I was able to get over all his previous rolls and see him as the character. The rest of the movie was decently cast as well. I'm a huge fan Alan Rickman and Jayne Wisener as Johanna fit very well with the aesthetics of the movie, I wouldn't be surprised to see her in another Tim Burton film. I think that Mrs. Lovett came across as quite young, and if Helena Bonham Carter hair and make-up had been more matronly, the look of the character would have fit the part better.

Tim Burton always delivers when it comes to visuals, and I can really appreciate that. The costumes, make-up, and sets in "Sweeney Todd" set up a consistent mood of drab, dirty, goth London. While in the poorer areas this styling is expected, when it's carried over to the rich neighborhoods, specifically Judge Turpin's house, the effect is quite menacing. If this movie had not been so strong visually, I wouldn't have enjoyed it.

In the end I was disappointed with the plot and the character development. None of the character's seemed one dimensional because they embodied cliches. We assumed Todd had deep feelings and love for his wife because we've seen it in other stories where the husband returns to find his family torn asunder. I assumed all kinds of things about Mrs. Lovett, Judge Turbin, Johanna, and Anthony just because I've seen their characters in other settings. There was very little in the movie that made me feel anything about the characters or offered up any complexity. The plot scooted along at an odd pace, while parts of the movie dragged on, the ending was a whirl wind of resolution that blew past me in a matter of minutes. This left me pretty indifferent, and I left any emotional attachment I had to the characters in the theater.

I enjoyed the movie, but it had about the same impact on me as "Transformers" (my sister forced me to watch it with her a couple days before). I wouldn't go see it in theaters again, and I don't think i would rent it. However if someone pulled it out and really wanted to watch it I wouldn't object.