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Archive for December, 2005

Cryin’ for Kong

December 31st, 2005

Spoiler Warning

After much waiting I finally made it out to see King Kong tonight. MP, The Captain, His Bride and I all went down to the Battery City Regal theaters to check out Peter Jackson’s latest. According to my movie review philosophy, I’d give it an 8. Not one of my favorites, but yet still a highly recommended film.

Anyway, it’s not really the film itself that I’d like to bring up. If you’ve seen the original, you have already have a good idea of what happens in the end. Needless to say, there was one girl sitting behind us that felt compelled to cry during the final 15 minutes of the film. And, I’m not talking a tear or two.. This was full on bawling. It made it very difficult to become even somewhat emotional when you hear someone behind you crying as if someone she knew personally had just died.

She promptly left at the beginning of the credits, and there was enough tissues on the ground that the fire marshall himself would’ve shut down the theater if he had seen it. So take it from me, if you’re going to cry in the theater — be polite and keep the bawling to a minumum.

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Posted in Life, Movies, Nonsense

100 things we didn’t know this time last year

December 30th, 2005

This is the time for rememberence. A time to think back about all the things that have happened this past year. It’s no Rosh Hashanah, but it’s a time for reminiscence.

The BBC has compiled a wonderful list of things that we have learned over the past year, with links to the individual stories. Most of them, I’m learning for the first time. For instance, did you know that one in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed? I didn’t think so.

Check it out. In the meantime, I’m off to Ikea.

This town needs an enema! -The Joker

December 29th, 2005

I love Christmas. My DVD collection always grows this time of year, often exponentially. This year was no different. Santa Claus brought Captain Larby the Red Sox World Series collection, The 40-Year Old Virgin and Batman – The Motion Picture Anthology (1989-1997). The latter will be the subject of this diatribe.

To date, Mrs. Larby and I have only watched Batman (1989), by far the best of the bunch. My Christmas wish list didn’t specify the entire gift set because, quite frankly, I don’t care for the other three movies. Nevertheless, I now own them all. To be fair, Batman Returns is a decent flick. With Tim Burton at the helm, the Dark Knight and Gotham City maintain that dark, moody edge. Not to mention the fact that I would recommend any movie where Christopher Walken makes an appearance, let alone a leading role. But let’s face it, Joel Schumacher swooped in to direct the final two installments and completely ruined the franchise. Don’t blame Kilmer or Clooney, Uma or Kidman, Schwarzenegger or Carey. Blame Schumacher the schmuck.
But I digress.

Tim Burton hit his prime with the first Batman. I mean, can you possibly imagine a more perfect live action film based on a comic book? Everything from set design, to costumes, to Danny Elfman’s brilliant score help this story leap right off of those colorful storybook pages and on to the screen. Furthermore, DVD’s were invented for certain movies, and this is one of them. It took Warner Bros. far too long to release this treasure, but I don’t hesitate to say that it was worth the wait. First of all, the movie looks fantastic. It is crisp, clean, and despite the dark lighting and nocturnal action sequences every scene is clearly discernible. And the aforementioned score, by my personal favorite score composer, is treated to a much deserved DTS track. Simply scintillating. Technically speaking, this DVD gets 5 out of 5 Peg Legs from the Cap’n.

Does the movie stand up, even after 16 years?

First of all, HOLY SHITE! Just typing that gave me more gray hairs. This movie is already 16 years old?! Ouch. I remember, as if it were yesterday, walking to the theater with my boy Mike V., barely able to contain our excitement. Hold on, I need a shot of Metamucil…okay, good to go.
» Read more: This town needs an enema! -The Joker

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Posted in Movies

A call to aid the fallen angels

December 28th, 2005

I was fortunate enough to have been given this link by my friend Marc, who knows my taste. The title is the “Preamble for the Great Divine Rector’s Call.” What it really is, though, is a call to cast the evil from the souls of the popular icons that exist in our culture.

Though it starts out incredibly incomprehendable, about halfway through it goes through a list of musicians, artists, and films that have fallen victim to the devil. This must have been recorded sometime in the 80’s as I can think of plenty of bands that are more poisonous to the country’s youth than Bananarama, REO Speedwagon or Hall and Oates.

Take a listen

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Posted in Bizarre, Nonsense

Face Recognition

December 28th, 2005

A new company called “MyHeritage.com” is offering a demo of their new Face-Recognition software to the public. The Beta of the site, allows you to upload a photo, it will scan for faces, and then match them up to its database of celebrities. I imagine that in the future, they plan on allowing paid members to upload photos of themselves, family, etc.. to track the patterns in faces across generations.

Although the original picture was far from flattering, it was the best I could find considering the circumstances. According to MyHeritage, my closest match was Kevin Spacey, and Miss Possible matched up with Alyson Hannigan. Very interesting. I’d love to your dopplegangers, upload your photo and share your results if you have the time (photos not necessary).

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Posted in Internet, Technology

Movies!

December 27th, 2005

I’m not a movie reviewer, not by any means. Don’t get me wrong, I like films. I like going to the theater, renting movies, watching them on TV, but.. I’m not really a connoisseur, but rather just the average movie watcher. Like most things in life, I know what I like, and what I don’t. That being said, I’ve realized that there’s pretty much just two types of movies: Those that are worth watching, and those that aren’t.

Deep down I’ve known this for quite some time. I’ve often told people “Yeah, it’s worth the watch” or “Don’t waste you time with that one,” but this past weekend I actually feel as though I developed something of a system for categorizing films that allows me to give me opinion of the film in a fashion that will allow people to judge for themselves, whether or not to watch something.

Simple as it is, most rating systems do not provide this type of subjectivity. Most media outlets, for instance, use a four or five star rating system. This system is great for examining the true merit of a film, often does not hold true to the “worth the watch” philosphy. Take one film I would highly recommend to anyone: Old School. This film did pretty poorly in the media, and when it was released in the theaters. Even Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 59%. For most people I know, this is one of the funniest films of the past few years.

Then there are those films that are really note-worthy films. Films that end up on the Academy Awards list that you may (or may not have) heard of like “The World’s Fastest Indian” or “Brokeback Mountain” that are truly amazing pieces of art captured on film that reviewers go crazy over. These types of movies, while usually amazing, are not the ones that people put down on their list as their “favorite movies ever!” Those are the “Old Schools” of the cinema world. My rating system will eliminate a lot of this ambiguity. My system is based on a 1-10 scale.
» Read more: Movies!

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Posted in Life, Movies

Wordpress 2.0

December 27th, 2005

So, I have to admit.. I didn’t want to upgrade to the new Wordpress 2.0 so quickly.. but I did.. and it’s pretty sweet. It came out yesterday, and though you won’t notice much of a difference from the user side.. the publishing side is much better.