Weekend wrap-up
Sadly, my birthday extravaganza weekend is drawing to a close, and the work week approacheth. The good news is that this is the week of Thanksgiving which means its a short week. Yay for holidays!
It was a fun weekend. We started getting caught up on our movies, going to see National Treasure and The Grudge. National Treasure was a great movie! Nicholas Cage plays the most recent generation of the "Gates" family (no relation to Bill!) who is tasked by family obligation to seek a treasure once protected by the Knights Templar and subsequently hidden in America by the founding fathers. Turns out the map to the treasure is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. (Not a spoiler -- that's in the previews!) Of course, just about everyone thinks he is crazy to believe it -- except of course for his evil nemisis who wants to plunder the treasure first! I have to say that the key to enjoying this movie is the suspension of disbelief. Many of the solutions to clues they find seem like they are solved just a little too easily and there many parts of the movie that seemed pretty unrealistic. But if you are just looking for a fun movie this one definitely fills the bill. I expected it to be an "OK" movie but it definitely exceeded my expectations. The audience in our theater actually clapped at the end.
The Grudge on the other hand was a big disappointment. It's based on the 2003 Japanese film "Ju-on: The Grudge". The plot was really disjointed. The creators decided to use a little gimmick of jumping around through the plot's timeline. This was not just the occasional flashback - the movie continuously jumps back and forth in time. Some people probably find this enjoyable and effective but I just found it to be distracting and annoying. I also didn't think the movie was particularly scary, surprising or creepy. It is not close to being in the same league as The Ring, which was also adapted from a Japanese horror movie, and which I enjoyed a lot more. Apparently The Grudge has been pretty succesful in the box office, however, as a sequel is already being planned. One that I will probably not be going to see.
While I'm reviewing movies, I guess I should also mention The Incredibles. We saw it a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty entertaining. I'm sure it's even better if you have kids -- but since I will always be a juvenile delinquent at heart I found it quite entertaining even without them.
I've also been spending quite a bit of time playing Half Life 2. It has definitely lived up to the hype IMHO and I've been having a lot of fun with it. It's been cutting into my Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas time, though. Too many diversions, not enough free time!
Finally, today marked the conclusion of the Nextel Cup season. I had pretty well written off Earnhardt Junior winning it since, though it was not impossible, he would not only have had to done extremely well, the other contenders would have had to done extremely poorly. So my second choice was Jimmy Johnson, mostly on account of the incredible comeback he's had during these final 10 races. As recently as a few weeks ago he had pretty much been written off and had come back to be a real threat. But that was not to be, although he did come within 8 points. Kurt Busch ended up being able to hold on to his lead.
That guy has some of the worst luck immediately followed by some of the best luck I've ever seen. He had a problem with his right front tire, and was having to slow down to go in the pits during green. Looked like he was going to be at least a lap down for sure. Then his wheel comes off completely -- he ever-so-narrowly misses running into the water barrels in front of the wall for pit lane. Then, the wheel that fell off proceeds to roll onto the track, bringing out a caution. He ends up being able to get his car taken care of and still stays on the lead lap -- ending up with a 5th place finish. A few spots back and Jimmy Johnson would be the new champ. Oh well, that's how it goes! No more NASCAR until February, when the Daytona 500 is run, which we will be attending!
It was a fun weekend. We started getting caught up on our movies, going to see National Treasure and The Grudge. National Treasure was a great movie! Nicholas Cage plays the most recent generation of the "Gates" family (no relation to Bill!) who is tasked by family obligation to seek a treasure once protected by the Knights Templar and subsequently hidden in America by the founding fathers. Turns out the map to the treasure is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. (Not a spoiler -- that's in the previews!) Of course, just about everyone thinks he is crazy to believe it -- except of course for his evil nemisis who wants to plunder the treasure first! I have to say that the key to enjoying this movie is the suspension of disbelief. Many of the solutions to clues they find seem like they are solved just a little too easily and there many parts of the movie that seemed pretty unrealistic. But if you are just looking for a fun movie this one definitely fills the bill. I expected it to be an "OK" movie but it definitely exceeded my expectations. The audience in our theater actually clapped at the end.
The Grudge on the other hand was a big disappointment. It's based on the 2003 Japanese film "Ju-on: The Grudge". The plot was really disjointed. The creators decided to use a little gimmick of jumping around through the plot's timeline. This was not just the occasional flashback - the movie continuously jumps back and forth in time. Some people probably find this enjoyable and effective but I just found it to be distracting and annoying. I also didn't think the movie was particularly scary, surprising or creepy. It is not close to being in the same league as The Ring, which was also adapted from a Japanese horror movie, and which I enjoyed a lot more. Apparently The Grudge has been pretty succesful in the box office, however, as a sequel is already being planned. One that I will probably not be going to see.
While I'm reviewing movies, I guess I should also mention The Incredibles. We saw it a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty entertaining. I'm sure it's even better if you have kids -- but since I will always be a juvenile delinquent at heart I found it quite entertaining even without them.
I've also been spending quite a bit of time playing Half Life 2. It has definitely lived up to the hype IMHO and I've been having a lot of fun with it. It's been cutting into my Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas time, though. Too many diversions, not enough free time!
Finally, today marked the conclusion of the Nextel Cup season. I had pretty well written off Earnhardt Junior winning it since, though it was not impossible, he would not only have had to done extremely well, the other contenders would have had to done extremely poorly. So my second choice was Jimmy Johnson, mostly on account of the incredible comeback he's had during these final 10 races. As recently as a few weeks ago he had pretty much been written off and had come back to be a real threat. But that was not to be, although he did come within 8 points. Kurt Busch ended up being able to hold on to his lead.
That guy has some of the worst luck immediately followed by some of the best luck I've ever seen. He had a problem with his right front tire, and was having to slow down to go in the pits during green. Looked like he was going to be at least a lap down for sure. Then his wheel comes off completely -- he ever-so-narrowly misses running into the water barrels in front of the wall for pit lane. Then, the wheel that fell off proceeds to roll onto the track, bringing out a caution. He ends up being able to get his car taken care of and still stays on the lead lap -- ending up with a 5th place finish. A few spots back and Jimmy Johnson would be the new champ. Oh well, that's how it goes! No more NASCAR until February, when the Daytona 500 is run, which we will be attending!
posted by eric at
11/21/2004 10:47:00 PM
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