Last night, Amy and I went to see the midnight showing of Wall-E. I have been incredibly excited for this movie for a long time, and despite being tired and the fact that the main character only knows like 3 words, it absolutely did not disappoint. I loved the movie, and in fact, might have almost shed a half-tear towards the end of the movie. Anyway, after the movie we were talking about how the various Pixar movies stack up against each other so I decided to actually rank them all. This is sort of a silly endeavor since Pixar simply doesn’t make bad movies. They are all fantastic. My list does not include “A Bug’s Life” which for some strange twist of fate, I have never seen it. The only one I definitely know were to place is “Cars”. I enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t as good as the others. As far as I am concerned the other 7 are almost a tie, but for the sake of ordering them, here you go:
- The Incredibles
- Wall-E
- Ratatouille
- Finding Nemo
- Monsters, Inc.
- Toy Story 2
- Toy Story
- Cars
I don’t know how picky any of you are about your writing instruments, but I have pretty tight requirements for me to really like a pen. The most important of which is that I want the sharpest, smallest point that I can get find. When I discovered the Uni-ball Signo RT UM-138, I pretty much stopped looking for a better pen. I can no longer use that crazy huge 0.5mm points. 0.38mm points is where its at.
I totally love NetFlix. It, along with Hulu and abc.com, has allowed me to watch pretty much whatever I want free and legally without needing to have cable. Sure, I may have to wait for it, but I can get it eventually. Netflix has gotten progressively better over the past year in that they now let you stream unlimited movies to your computer for free if you spend at least $10/month on a subscription. This doesn’t generally include any new movies but for classics or just something to watch when I am bored it works great.
That being said, until today that has been limited to having to use my computer. Sure, I could set up a media PC to watch on my TV, but that takes a lot of effort. Today, Netflix along with Roku announced a stand-alone player for $99. It basically connects to your TV, and streams your movie selections from the internet. You still set up your normal queue on your computer, but then you can select to watch an available movie from your TV and start watching instantly, for free. Cool stuff.
While I am talking about Netflix, I recently discovered FeedFlix which is suppose to give you an analysis of your netflix usage. It isn’t very accurate right now, but I think you have to use it over time before it really gives you anything useful.
I know this review is coming something like 7 years late, but last night I watched the remake of Planet of the Apes. It really was terrible. The apes really don’t look much better. The acting is terrible. And the normal humans talk. They Talk! And they finish it off with a surprise ending that isn’t a surprise. Blah. Why must we continually remake classic movies, only a little bit shinier, and a whole lot worse.
There is only one problem with Pixar as I see it. Just as they release one movie that I have been anxiously awaiting, they release a trailer for the next movie that leaves me once again anxiously awaiting.
I don’t get to see actual professional shows very often, but this past Saturday, at the last minute, I ended up deciding to go along with a group to see The Light in the Piazza. I could not have made a better choice, in either my decision to go to the show, or my making that decision at the last minute. Once again, my procrastination ultimately worked in my favor. My getting my tickets the afternoon before the performance, I ended up with a seat on the front row, and not only that but towards the stage left side of the front row. This certainly isn’t always my favorite place to sit, but for this particular show and in that particular venue, this seat put me about 4 feet from a large amount of that action, but still let me see the whole stage without turning my head. I really think it was that position that helped me enjoy the show as much as I did (more on that in a minute).
The basic idea of this show is a girl and her mother on vacation in Italy, wherein the girl meets a boy, etc etc, yadda, yadda. I went to the show knowing basically nothing about it, and thought that was a great way to do, so I shall say nothing else of the plot. It should be noted that a significant amount of speech, and some of the songs are in Italian, as everyone speaks whatever language they would naturally be speaking. My time in Spain really got me used to watching shows in languages I don’t understand, so I didn’t really even notice how much wasn’t in English until someone pointed out to me. It was also quite funny, but not in the rolling laughing type of funny. It was more like the “makes me giddy with enjoyment” type funny.
I really enjoyed the show and would happily recommend it, but with a small warning. There were 8 people in my group, though because of getting tickets we sat all around the theatre. Four people were in the rear-center of the floor seating. The other four of us were scattered around the first 10 rows or so. The group in the back did not really like the show. They complained about it being boring and slow. Those of us closer to the stage really enjoyed it. Now whether that has to do with the people or the placement I can’t say. I will say you should not expect big musical numbers. Piazza is really more of a play where the characters sing their lines some times instead of talking. So yeah, there you go: my musical review of the year.
I am sort of on a movie theme this week, but if the 007 franchise has any hope of being interesting again, this is the movie to do it. We have a new actor in the lead, and this is more of an origin story. All reports seem to be goon.
For those of you fortunate enough to be familiar with the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you should be aware that a movie, based on a script written by Douglas Adams himself. Casting and other info can be found here.