Tomb Raider review (contains spoilers):

by | Jun 16, 2001 | Imported Entry

Tomb Raider review (contains spoilers): Ok, Tomb Raider, a summer action movie that secretly tries to be more than it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an ok movie, but there’s always those little things that start to bug you after a while. First of all, I realize that different people are going to see this for different reasons. Pete will see it because is has Angie in it, Nagle will see it because he’s bored, Chip will see it because Chris Barrie runs around with a shotgun. I saw it because I had nothing better to do. The movie starts off well, a little training with robots (see the trailer) and unfortunately her “party mix” makes it into the actual movie. Ouchy. After that, the first half was pretty good. Fights with bad guys, a cool shoot’em up scene in her garage in which a beautiful James Bond-ish Aston Martin gets trashed (cry), Chris Barrie running around with loafers and a shotgun. Not half bad. Then, after we discover the plot (literally) beneath her stairs, we start getting a pointless back-story (I’ll explain as I go). Laura finds a “clock”, which looks like something out of Stargate, which is the key to unlocking pieces of an artifact with incredible power, her dad life work was trying to find it… we think. Of course the bad guys want it too. And so shenanigans ensue. As we go, we’re introduced to our bad guy who’s working for the secret organization that wants the artifact. He never quite appears evil enough. He lets Laura live, repeatedly, where you’d expect a normal bad guy to try and kill her. Which leads you to believe he’s not all bad. Through all this, Laura is driven to get this artifact and keep it away from the bad guys by her commitment to the memory of her father and his willingness that his work be completed. Cheese. Completely unnecessary. You’ll have to see it to pick out the specifics of what I mean, but lets say this: if Indiana Jones doesn’t need a deep and emotional back story to compel him to raid tombs, neither does Laura Croft. To further this is the “climax” if you’d like to call it that. Our hero finds the pieces, does the right thing, saves the world and then gets the bad guy with his own knife. Dead, of course not. Our bad guy then reveals at the last second that it was indeed him that killed her father and then provokes her to fight him in one last fight scene. Um, hello, you just got stabbed in the chest! Watch the plot take a flying lead at this point. The entire back-story leading up to the admission that he killed her dad was, again, unnecessary. He could have simply tried to kill her and she was fighting back. That would have been fine. Ok, I digress; I don’t want to spoil too much of it for you. Its a fun summer action flick with some problems. But hey, aren’t they all? Go see it if you’re bored, but don’t expect much other than guns and mildly interesting action scenes and the always annoying 13 year olds that need to shout out and comment on everything. Remember, it’s PG-13 for a reason, I just wish I could have figured out what that reason was. Yet another o.k. movie that would have been better R-rated. Later.

Ok, looks like I’m going

by | Jun 15, 2001 | Imported Entry

Ok, looks like I’m going to see Tomb Raider tonight. You know I’ll let you know how it is when I get back. Just a quick blurb to let you know that the bio and the moodbox are now working. I finally got around to it. Please be warned, for those of you who hate and loath popup boxes, thats what the “moodbox” is. It’s a small 300 x 150 pop up window. There’s no images, only text, it loads nearly instantly, you read it then close it. Thats it. Just thought I’d let you know. Later.

Well, the animation festival was

by | Jun 15, 2001 | Imported Entry

Well, the animation festival was great. Don Hertzheld makes me laugh. “Rejected” was awesome. Can’t wait for the DVD in 2002. At any rate, it was a fun time had by all. Except for Derrick who, through a mix up in driving schedules, was shafted and left on his door step. I’ll let him and Dave straiten that out. I’m not getting in the middle of it. Boston was fun as always. My favorite city on the planet is alive and well. I grabbed a copy of the Phoenix to see what the concert season is going to be like. It should be great. There’s far to many bands coming to town to mention it here. I’ll just let you know about each one as I go to it. Speaking of which, it looks like Ani has been confirmed for Sunday. That should be kick ass. Also Chris told me that Darren Emerson is coming to town in a week or two. I’m definatly looking forward to that as well. Ok, breakfast time. Later.

I’m pissed off. This is

by | Jun 14, 2001 | Imported Entry

I’m pissed off. This is gonna be long, so buckle up. Ok, this afternoon my dad asked me to go to the store to get some poster-board to make a chart for him. I ended up going to Walmart. I hate Walmart here, everyone is stupid, slow and inconsiderate, todays trip was no exception. After entering the store, finding the board and heading towards the register I stop at what appears to be an open lane. I head over towards it and see a single person standing by it. Not in the lane mind you, just at the opening, like where the candy usually is. Gramps is taking his sweet ass time looking at candy and since he doesn’t appear to have anything else going on, I walk around him towards the register. As soon as I do, his wife, a young 80 years herself, jumps out from one of the other isles and grabs his things and trys to cut me off. I, in a hurry, decide not to let that happen. So, being younger than the fossil, I move in front of her and the cashier starts to check my things out. From behind me I now hear multitudes of profanity and whispering. I turn around and say “If you have something to say, say it TO me, not AT me.” The old ding bat then looks at me and without blinking an eye says “that was so rude, you knew he was in line and you walked right around him, I hope you trip and break your neck going through the parking lot.” I’m now quite taken back. I had never expected to hear that coming out of an old persons mouth, let alone towards me. And let me just say that, if it had appeared that the gentleman was indeed in line, I wouldn’t have walked around him. Ok, to continue. As I’ve now been insulted, I’m begining to get angry, but I’m remaining quite. She then spurts out with “you young punks are all the same, rude as hell, I hope you die.” Thats it, now I’m pissed. This part is no joke, I like intimidation and like to use it where nessisary. I take off my sunglasses very slowly, Tony Soprano style, look at her and say with a completely strait face, “Lady, he might have been in line, but he was 10 feet back there, and you, you can suck my dick, and, while you’re at it, I hope you have a heartattack trying to get into you car.” I turn back to the cashier who is waiting for the money for the thing I’m buying, hand her a few dollars and say “some people are just militant assholes when they get old.” But this old bats not done. She then continues by saying the classic “Look here sonny” followed by “I’ve got enough things wrong with me, I don’t need you talking back to me.” I put the sunglasses back on and say “as if I don’t have anything wrong with me.” “You don’t look it, you punk” she replies. I’m done with her, turn to the cashier, pick up my things and as I look back to leave, I say “Have a nice day, hope you die soon ” and then smile really big. Now, as most of you who know me will say, this doesn’t sound like Matt. He’s usually not rude to anyone, and certainly nothing like that. Well, let me just say, that if she had simply said I was rude, I would have let it go, but as soon as she told me that she hoped I broke my neck and died, that was the line. I wouldn’t take that kind of abuse when I was working as a sales associate at a store, and I’m certainly not going to take it from some random lady in Walmart. She crossed the line and so mild mannered Matt got pissed and made sure she knew it. Arg. I appologize for the profanity, wait, no I don’t. I’m still pissed. But at least I get to hang out with the guys tonight, I’m sure they’ll get a laugh out of this. I know I didn’t. Later.