| You can't stop what's comin'. Ain't all waitin' on you. That's vanity. |
[30 Nov 2009|02:34pm] |
Sherrif Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) rattles the paper.
...Here last week they fund this
couple out in California they would
rent out rooms to old people and then
kill em and bury em in the yard and
cash their social security checks.
They'd torture them first, I don't
know why. Maybe their television
set was broke. And this went on until,
and here I quote...
He looks through his glasses at the paper.
..."Neighbors were alerted when a man
ran from the premises wearing only a
dog collar." You can't make up such a
thing as that. I dare you to even try.
He peers over his glasses at Wendell who respectfully shakes his head and
tsk's.
Sheriff Bell rattles the paper again.
...But that's what it took, you'll no-
tice. Get someone's attention. Diggin
graves in the back yard didn't bring
any.
Wendell bites back a smile. Sheriff Bell gazes at him over his glasses for
a long beat, deadpan.
...That's all right. I laugh myself
sometimes.
He goes back to the paper.
...There ain't a whole lot else you
can do.
-No Country for Old Men
|
(Death To Socrates? )
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| ROBOT REVOLUTION LEAGUE, FORWARD! |
[30 Oct 2009|05:35pm] |
Ooookay.
So I went and saw Astroboy.
You know, there's really not so much that I can say about the movie that can't be explained as "Well, this is how it's done FOR AMERICA." To be entirely honest, I was pretty disappointed. But somehow I don't think all that much more could be expected of it.
The film had to work really fast to establish the pathos of Toby's death in order to keep the movie at a mainstream acceptable Hour and a Half runtime, but it still felt pretty rushed. Also, the fact that the movie was trying to say that Toby was kind of a jerk before he died was entirely peculiar.
Nicholas Cage as Dr. Tenma is more Nicholas Cage THAN Dr. Tenma. The voice is just entirely too disjointed for the character. However, seeing that Nick Cage has no setting between off and uncomfortable, that made a kind of interesting twist for dealing with Tenma's crumbling sanity. Whereas previous incarnations have been more along the lines of Standard Mad Scientist Delusions of Grandeur (2003) or Silent Soul-killing Depression (Urasawa's Pluto), this Tenma is more Hamster in a Pinball Machine sort of crazy, and that's still pretty damn sad. He wanted things to work out so badly that you can almost hear the fuses blowing in his head. But it makes it all the harder to believe that he could pull back from that cliff-edge so easily when presented with the fact that his new robot son is just not what he wants.
I take massive MASSIVE offense to the whole "BILL" thing, but that's neither here nor there. Moving on.
Hamegg was flawless, right down to being played by Nathan Lane, a casting choice I would have bellowed for MYSELF, were I in charge. A perfectly executed two-timing greaseball who can pat you on the shoulder and steal your wallet at the same time, I would change NOTHING about him.
Cora is completely pointless filler, with all the substance, purpose, and visual appeal of a Bratz doll. A gaggle of normal children for Astro to awkwardly attempt to befriend was probably unavoidable plot padding, but having it crystallized into a single effigy of DisneyChannel Teenybopper Mallpunk made it all the more unbearable. The Robot Revolution League fared better, being amusing, british and socialist enough to succeed in appealing to me in the way Robin Williams et al of Robots failed to do. But deeper examination reveals them to be a kind of lackluster attempt at breaching the political commentary of the robot civil rights struggle that the 2003 show examined so thoroughly. Instead, the bulk of the politics was wasted on creating a warmongering "president" who's so one-note that it makes even a filthy Taxachusetts liberal like me roll my eyes. It's a wonder he didn't have a goddamn armband on.
In short, the movie really felt like a Made for Cartoon Network Special TV Feature Film, just with really good production values. Not catastrophically bad, just disappointing. It's kind of a nice jumping-off point for introducing a new generation of fans, but if they really wanted to treat kids right, CN would grow a pair and finish the broadcast of the 2003 series. Then everyone on earth would read Urasawa's Pluto. But alas.
|
( 1 sip of hemlock +Death To Socrates? )
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| If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. *NAIL* *NAIL* |
[12 Oct 2009|02:07pm] |
"Arue (R.A.)" - by Bump of Chicken, a catastrophically engrish-named, but undeniably adorable Japanese pop-rock combo that sounds a like a softer edged version of the Pillows. The real awkwardness is that it's a love song dedicated to Rei Ayanami.
Rei is one of those seminal anime characters who somehow creates unspeakable yearnings in certain men. Despite their heartfelt longings, I just can't overlook that she is, at core, a clonal replacement of a self-loathing social avoidant dude's dead wife, designed with the express purpose of becoming a tool for an engineered metaphysical apocalypse.
You could try and be her white knight, but she'd just end up ruining your heart. And your arm.
|
( 3 sips of hemlock +Death To Socrates? )
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| Frauleins having Mittelschmerz. |
[05 Sep 2009|03:21pm] |
| [ |
music |
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Muse- "Uprising" |
] |
\
WOW. People sure got BUTTHURT over this. I have to admit the thing about giving halos to people who didn't use idler progs is a little namby pamby, but you know Valve, they'd never give up an opportunity for a joke.
Screaming about "Noobs" getting preferential treatment is a guaranteed way to make yourself look like an elitist douchebag. While Valve has a priority to make sure they gain new users, they aren't actively shitting on old ones, no matter what those users would assume. Item drops are randomized, at a rate of about 1 item every hour and 40 minutes. Hats are rarer, with a lower percentage of appearing every 4 hours and 20 minutes.
But they're just goddamn HATS anyways, and they don't do anything for your stats except maybe adding a +5 FABULOUS.
Now we should all stop whining and get back to hoping that maybe they're going to release the "Meet the Medic" video in time for Oktoberfest.
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( 2 sips of hemlock +Death To Socrates? )
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| Assistanza? |
[16 Dec 2007|08:00pm] |
Livejournal afficionados!
I have a question for those of you who are on my friendslist. I have a very odd problem, where it appears that my friends-locked journals, if not ALL my journal entries, are failing to show up on people's friendspages! If there is any particular reason why this might be happening, I'd appreciate an explanation!
To test if my journals are working at all, please reply, if you can see this journal via YOUR OWN FRIENDS PAGE, and not through my own journal's mainpage.
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( 7 sips of hemlock +Death To Socrates? )
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