| W |
Going to the doctor's office can be a lot like going to the mechanic -- half they time when you go to the mechanic complaining about a strange noise, they don't really know what's causing it, and never do figure it out. Yet most of the time, they can do something to your car that seems totally unrelated to the noise, and somehow it fixes it.
Anyway. Now that I can move, I can play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. And even better... I got a USB ethernet adaptor for the Playstation 2 so I can play against people online! Woohoo. Wait did I already mention that in a previous update? I don't remember. Anyway. Other than that... life has been pretty uneventful around here. So I guess instead I'll just talk about some more of the DVD's I've been watching.
Monty Pyton's Life Of Brian: Criterion Collection
The movie: A lot of nerds out there live and die by Monty Python. They think that Monty Python is a higher form of humor and that everything else is crap. I personally have never particularly cared much for Monty Python, but everyone says they are great, so hey why not try some? Well, personally, I didn't like this movie very much. I didn't think it was that funny, and I got really annoyed with the guy who was playing Brian's mother. There's only so much screeching of a guy doing a bad falsetto to be a woman that I can handle. Some hardcore geeks would probably say I'm stupid and unsophisticated for even suggesting that this movie had unfunny parts, but hey, most of it was unfunny to me, although it had some moments.
But basically this story is set in the time that Jesus was alive and it's about a guy named Brian who gets mistaken for being the messiah through a series of wacky coincidences. Well, to be honest, the only reason why I got this movie is because it was about a guy named Brian. And I didn't really like it, condescending geeks be damned.
The DVD: As is the case with many Critereon Collection DVD's, the special features are superb -- that is, if you have any interest in this movie at all. I didn't like the movie, so the special features weren't that exciting to me. But if someone was a fanatical fan of this movie or Monty Python in general, they would probably like the special features enough. Particularly interesting to me were the inclusion of the original radio commercials in addition to theatrical trailers and other stuff. The film was presented in anamorphic widescreen format that looked pretty good, but they did not remix the sound into a 5.1 mix -- but why they would really need to I cannot see. So yeah. I mean, it's a good DVD if you like the movie. The menus are cool too -- if you liked the movie hehe.
The Last Dragon
The Movie: Ahhh, Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon. This film ooozes of stereotypes and cheeziness in ways that only a 1980's martial-arts movie can. What can I say, I love this movie. The hero is a young black guy in New York who is seeking to achieve the final level in his training (which he stereotypically receives from an old asian guy) in which he attains "the glow". He walks around NYC wearing kung-fu gear, and idolizes Bruce Lee. In fact, some people actually call him "Bruce Leroy". His arch-nemesis is another black guy who has a crazy outfit, a big entourage, and a very Busta Rhymes-esque look and demeanor. This guy goes by the name Sho'nuff, and calls himself "The Shogun of Harlem". Does it get any cheesier than that?
Adding of course to the 80's cheesiness of it is the damsel in distress, a TV music/dance/video hostess VJ type played by Vanity... and another villian who seeks to build his fortune by getting his girlfriend famous... by kidnapping Vanity and forcing her to play his girlfriend's video. The hairstyles, the sets, the look, everything about it is just... well, it couldn't have come from anywhere but the 1980's, and thats why I love this movie!
The DVD: This movie had a pretty good looking widescreen anamorphic film transfer. The menus were pretty simple, but good... special features included director's commentary (which I didn't have time to listen to), and that's about it. I mean, the other "special feature" was "featured trailers" or something like that which was movie trailers of other movies. Heh. There were also cast biographies and I think that was about it. I may eventually buy this DVD just cuz I like this movie so much and plus it's hard to tell when they are gonna play it on TV.