Slowly Learning...

So this was one of the greatest animated films I've ever seen. There is little dialogue (pretty much none) but it doesn't need it. It's far from a silent film though. It has a rather solid musical soundtrack and the little sounds in the background add a lot of character to the film. Story wise, it's like straight out of one of my dreams. The quick plot line is this: A young kid gets a bike from his grandma, he rides constantly, gets kidnapped during the tour de france, his grandma (and dog) track him down and help free him from the french mob along with the help of the Bellevelle Triplets. What makes the movie even greater is that the animation is so beautiful and distinct. Every character has such a unique style to them and has such a sense of depth even without words. Everyone has their own personality, from the limping grandma, to the large calved biker, to the wispy waiter, to the blocky thugs, to the mouse-like mechanic. If for no other reason go out and see this movie for one of the greatest car chases I've ever seen on screen, sort of. It is after a bunch of cars chasing a contraption of bikes. Or perhaps see it for the Triplets + One musical number. In either case my suggestion to you is to go out to wherever you have to go and see this movie.

RATING: Worth Rushing Out to See, Worth an Imediate Rental

Posted by Thom at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie and I finally got around to seeing it. The plot itself is true-ish (hard to tell how much is really true in movies) and a little disturbing too, but still good. It's the strange story of a straight, semi-ex-hooker and her lesbian girlfriend who run off together and get into trouble as the hooker starts killing her clients. Along the way there are 2 great performances from Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. Theron definitely deserves all the praise she is getting from her role, but even more credit should go to the makeup artists. Theron looks more like the original Aileen Wuaronos than she looks like herself. It's quite a task to make such a beautiful woman look so beaten down and dishelved. All in all it's a rather interesting story.

RATING: Worth a regular admission, Worth a rental

Posted by Thom at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So some of you may have noticed that I haven't been online or posting in a while. The simple reason for this is because I'm an idiot. While removing old programs and such it seems I also removed something that is key to starting up my computer, hence after I turned my computer off (for like the first time in months) I was unable to boot it back up. Hopefully that will soon be rectified (mainly because I'm going nuts without a computer and internet connection). Until then I guess I'll have to live with the few fleeting moments that I can get on a computer at Cortland, or maybe Cornell if I stop up there.

Posted by Thom at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I've been playing some Contra again, as I'm bound to do from time to time, and I managed to set a couple personal bests. I managed to cut about 2 mins off my time and clear the game in 13 mins, I managed to rack up 3174400 points, and almost made it through the 5 round of the game. I almost had that stupid brain thing beaten too when I died. I did however finally find a challenge in the game, unfortunately it's the 5th round, and that takes about an hour to get to. If only I could just start right up there... Oh well, I guess I'll just have to settle for kicking the ass out of the first 4 rounds.

Posted by Thom at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So it's been a while since I've been to the movies, and there isn't much playing at 10 at night, so I decided to see Miracle. I had an interest in seeing it anyway, plus I got my student discount, so it all worked out. So what did I think about the movie? Well, it was a story that worked quite well, but only because it was true. If someone had tried to make this all up then it would have completely sucked. But, since it was true, there wasn't too much surprise to it either, which was fine. The acting work was solid all around, and having the plot follow mainly Coach Brooks was a good idea. They could have made a movie centered around a number of different players, but in the end it was really Herb Brooks's baby. He had wanted it badly and pushed his players to get it. The writing and story was thankfully not overly sappy, as can happen with a lot of Disney movies, and it also didn't focus on the international tensions between the US and the USSR in spots where it wasn't necessary. Sure they did touch on some of the issues cause that was what was happening at the time, but it still remained about the game, and about beating the best team in the world, not about the US defeating the evil commies! As you probably all know from hearing the story before, or even those of you who don't know it can probably guess from the title, the US did go on the beat the USSR and eventually win gold. It's a very nice story, but as a warning to many of you out there the movie does focus mainly on the hockey game at the end, which I enjoyed. Hockey still is one of my favorite sports to watch, even if most other Americans may not agree with me. So go out and see it if you have the time and capital, but it's no big rush.

RATING: Worth a cheap to possible full price ticket, worth a rental

Posted by Thom at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Short really is sweet because taller women are scary and intimidating, and that's rough for a guy who's only 5'7".

Posted by Thom at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel like I have been neglecting my blogging duties...and I have.

Posted by Thom at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've been watching a lot of Justice League on Cartoon Network and I've come to the conclusion that Batman is by far the cooles hero. He's got no special powers, but he still kicks major ass through the use of psychology. He's also so distrubing. I mean what other member of the League carries around kryptonite "just in case"? You just gotta love someone that creepy, who lurks in the shadows and just kicks serious ass. He just seems to walk that line between good and evil, while always seeming to stay on the side of good (plus his outfit is a lot better than those stupid tights everyone else wears).

In the case of the best villan you have to go with the Joker too. Just like Batman he's just a normal guy, although seriously disturbed. He's got this major obsession with Batman, and who doesn't love Mark Hammel's perfect voice acting? Luke ceratinly has turned to the dark side. And without any real powers he still gives Batman the most difficulty. He's also the only villan that's disturbed enough so that you can understand why he would be so obsessed with getting rid of a single person. And for further proof all you have to do is look to the movies. Who was the greatest Batman villan in the best of the Batman movies? Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the original of course!

Everyone wants to be a superhero, just without all the goodie goodie crap. So thank you Batman for giving us all something to look up to. Unless of course you want to be a demented criminal genious, but then you've got the Joker to look up to.

Posted by Thom at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So to keep all you eager readers informed on the happenings in my life I've decided to post a quick summary of recent events. School is boring (with a few exceptions), but still good. Work is long and slow. My love life is still rather empty. I still have no place to lilve next year. And after major reconstructive surgery my car has come back to me, and it seems just like new. It even still has the leftover garbage from the night of the accident in the front seat and the new car smell to it (which is probably because it had under 500 miles on it when it got trashed). And of course to celebrate the reuinion of me and my car I'm planning on heading back up to Turning Stone this weekend (or sometime soon). Hopefully I'll have the same luck at the tables, but better luck on the drive back.

Posted by Thom at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"He doesn't know what his penis smells like, you do." - Talk Sex with Sue

Posted by Thom at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So it's been a while, but I finally got around to getting out to the movies again. This time I headed back up to Cornell and caught Puddle Cruiser in good old Uris. There's nothing quite like watching a movie in a room where you can look around and say, "hey look! That's where I sat for the Math 294 final!" But enough about the room, onto the movie. It started good, much like Super Troopers, but then got really slow for a while. The story itself was rather blah and not too inventive. However there were plenty of funny parts to keep it going. Maybe I'm comparing it too much to Broken Lizard's later movie Super Troopers, but it just wasn't quite up to par. It didn't have the same level of humor and relied more on standard old jokes that make you laugh, but don't really keep you laughing. I wouldn't say it was a waste of my time or money, but I wouldn't really suggest spending more than the $5 Cornell admission cost to see it.

RATING: Worth a Cheap Ticket, Worth a Rental if there's nothing else to get and you want a cheap laugh.

Posted by Thom at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So some washers and dryers may eat socks, but our appears to eat both socks and underwear. At least it seems to eat my socks and underwear. Originally my sock/underwear drawer was packed full (half socks, half underwear) but now the underwear side seems a lot smaller and the pile of socks also seems to have diminished. I can't really say for sure if I've lost socks because I never bother to match them up, but rather just pile them all into one side of the dresser, but the underwear stacks are definitely lower. We usually lock our doors pretty well, so I'm not really concerned that the underpants gnomes are taking them, and there's no one else that I could think of that would really want my boxers, so the only logical solution is that the washer and/or dryer is devoyering them. But in another strnage twist to things I also seem to be gaining shirts. I could have sworn that I had extra hangers when I moved into this place, but now I don't even have enough hangers for all my shirts. And on top of that, I don't have any room in my closet to hang them either. Now I'm not much for shopping, and I've only gotten 3 work shirts and 1 t-shirt within the last 6 months, so logically they have to be coming from somewhere else, namely our posessed washer/dryer unit. I'm not quite sure how the machines are pulling this off, but I know it has to have something to do with the fact that they're stacked on top of each other, cause no other washer/dryer combo has given me mysterious problems like this before. So let this be a lesson to all of you out there, if you buy a stackable washer/dryer set be prepared to buy more underwear too. However, if you have plenty of underwear and need some more shirts then I say go for it.

Posted by Thom at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I ever become rich and donate money to some school I'd insist they use it to build a building that had beds in it, so students could have some place to nap between classes, cause god knows I could use some place to lay down and sleep right now.

Posted by Thom at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)