Sunday, 19 July 2009

  • Transformers 2: Just a visual effects demo tape, nothing more.

    I laughed when I read one review saying that it stands as one of the greatest sequels ever made. WHAT?

    Yes, the action was bigger, there were more explosions, there were more robots. It was visually cool, but that's not something that makes a movie better. It was not heart-pounding, it was not dazzling, it was not breathtaking, and definitely not spectacular.

    I really liked the first one for the emotional aspect. The fact that you cared about the humans while hoping the robots could settle their feud was nice. In this sequel, it just seemed like it went from one battle to the next, mixed in with a bunch of slow motion scenes. And when it was meant to be serious and sad, it wasn't. Michael Bay never makes you care about the autobots much in this film, in fact, when you watch them fight the decepticons, you don't really care who wins. Oh, so Optimus Prime gets impaled through the back.....big deal. Oh wait, you can bring robots back to life.....still not excited.

    Mikaela (Megan Fox) was even more pointless here. Her character withstands all of the war trauma with all the robots and people dying around her and all she can think about is how Sam (Shia LaBeouf) still hasn't said "I love you" ? What is her problem?

    Sam's roommate. Garbage.

    The twin robots. They served no purpose, not even comic relief.

    Sam's mom. She needs to be shot.

    The only character I really cared about was Major Lennox(Josh Duhamel), and they never resolve what happens to him at the end! Sigh. I was really hoping that the sequel would be at least half as cool as the 1st film.

    This film is simply a visual effects display and nothing more so props to the animators for a nice demo tape.



Monday, 04 May 2009

  • Habitat for Humanity Project

    May 2, 2009 - The SCU Alumni Association advertised a Habitat for Humanity project and our group jumped at the opportunity to participate.  It turned out to be a pretty fun day full of nailing stuff and walking on scaffolds.  The association also fed us lunch at Subway.  Melinda's afraid of heights but she toughed it out for several hours up on the scaffolds.  What a trooper!  It was pretty fun to climb around the construction site.  The full albums are posted on Facebook but here is a snippet of some of the action.

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    nail from inside

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    all busy

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Wednesday, 05 November 2008

  • Sad Times for the Dinosaur Community.

    Last week I was thinking back to the days when I would have a birthday in elementary school.  My mom always bought me a big box of giant dinosaur graham cookies and I would bring the box with me to school and hand out a cookie to each of my classmates.  It was always a highlight of my birthday to have those dinosaur cookies.  In addition to that, the box always had a dinosaur fact card at the end of the box that you could cut out and keep.  I still have several of them to this day. 
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    Thinking about this awesome time in life, I decided I wanted to find these cookies again and get them at the store.
    I look them up online and find this link regarding my beloved dinosaur cookies.

    OH NO!  "The Mother's Cookie Company, an Oakland institution for more than 90 years, filed for bankruptcy yesterday, putting an end to a variety of special snacks and treats, most notably the Dinosaur Grrrahams...Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!  How can this happen!?  And they JUST go out of business the same month that I happened to think about them?  Damnit!

    Now today, I go online and read CNN news and what do I see?  "'Jurassic Park' author, 'ER' creator Chrichton dies."  Michael Chrichton, the author of the best story ever, Jurassic Park, has died from cancer at the age of 66.
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    It is definitely a sad time for the Dinosaur community.  That's 2 horrible things to happen in less than a week apart!  I will watch 'Jurassic Park' again to commemorate the life and death of both the Dinosaurs and Mr. Chrichton.