Man, the alarm went off at 0400 this morning (cause the wife is on day shift for the next couple of weeks) and even though it took a while to roll out of bed (when you crash at midnight and the clock-radio starts blaring country at 4 in the morning, it can take a while to come to your senses) I've been pretty dang busy today.
Talked with my bud, Scott, who's chilling in Colorado (note: he doesn't blog much). Whipped some UEF ass in the my latest game, Supreme Commander (the game is a lot cooler than the title would lead you to believe). Bugged over to the Eagles boards to see what was what. Went into base to get a crapload of stuff done, including a good long workout. Then I came back with a few rentals in hand and watched Altered this afternoon while having a late lunch.
Altered is quite good. Made by the director of the Blair Witch Project, it sets four guys who were "abducted" 15 years ago, against a lethal alien, who for reasons that I won't go into here, they do not want to kill (it has no such problems). Reasonably well done, it goes shoestring most of the way. No fancy set or locales, just some backwoods ramshackle place that the protagonist has built in order to isolate himself from a town that thinks he a whack-job and to hide from any aliens that might want to return to look his up (he got the full monty treatment up in the spaceship, a few of the others didn't).
Anyway, I enjoyed it. And after that, wow, if was past 16:30, so its past 18:30 and my wife should be coming back from work any time. Her plan is to pass out right away, and I gotta admit, I am a little tired. I just wonder where the time went? Whew. Well. There isn't much else going on here in Japan. We're getting as drenched as the East Coast. Been raining for 4 days straight. I am half-expecting to see a little Japanese Noah leading pairs of animals down the street.
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Eagles Friday is a HIT!
Friday was a good day to be an Eagles fan. The first teamers did pretty well against the Steelers in a 16-7 win at the Linc. OK OK its pre-season, and I know the teams all play vanilla and the games are meaningless, but this week is usually the tune-up for the regular season, and the starters look ready.
As for Invincible, it was almost EXACTLY what I expected, a great feel-good sports movie. If you're a football fan, you'll love the movie. My prediction wasn't quite accurate though, looks like Vince Papale's life was swirling down the crapper in 1976 when coach Vermeil announced the open tryouts for the team. Other than that, getting prodded to seize the opportunity, the hard knocks, the need for inspiration (which comes from multiple sources, but most notably from his father, and a rejuvenating, muddy, "tank-lot" game in the rain with his buds from the old neighborhood) and the strategic feat to lead the team to an improbably win were all right on the money....what can I say...I've seen Disney sports movies before. While the movie did dramatize Papale's game winning play, they do a nice job at the end of the movie (before the credits roll) of showing Vince in action...and show the audience that he did in fact score a special teams TD against the Giants.
The movie does have some warts, like some of the stadium scenes are obviously F/x...the Vet is long gone, and the exterior Vet shots are EXCELLENT, but when they get to the interior shots and the backgrounds behind the live actors can be a bit, um, off... The movie does a good job with wardrobe and music to set the scene and recreate the feel of 70s. The most glaring error is a simple one...during the tryout, some of the Eagles fans break out in a modified Eagles fight song...sorry Disney, to my knowledge the Eagles Fight Song came into existence just a few seasons ago...now to be fair they don't sing the actual song, and I did NOT mind the nod to the fans, it just felt out of place...
The movie did an decent job of capturing the atmosphere of the Vet at the 700-level bleachers. For anyone who think Hollywood may have embellished it...um...NO...as someone who worked for Spectaguard and who did preseason assignments up there (before I wormed my way to a much better viewing position on the lower level) if anything they toned it down, way down...
Acting - Mark Wahlberg as a South Philly guy...ok, this is maybe the biggest obstacle for the movie to overcome, and, when you actually SEE Papale at the end of the movie, they obviously could have chosen someone a bit more, uh, ethnically comparable to Papale. Nor does Marky do a Philly accent very well....ok...if I wanted to, I could rip this aspect of the movie...but I don't want to...Wahlberg is likeable, while he does not exactly fit the role, the studio obviously wanted someone of even modest Hollywood recognition with which to try and have a decent draw and Wahlberg is sufficient for those purposes.
I give the movie Five (5) Cheesesteaks (with a soft pretzel on the side) for being a decent feel-good movie in general (not too cheesy, adequate acting, generally realistic) and a GREAT Eagles movie... say it with me E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!
As for Invincible, it was almost EXACTLY what I expected, a great feel-good sports movie. If you're a football fan, you'll love the movie. My prediction wasn't quite accurate though, looks like Vince Papale's life was swirling down the crapper in 1976 when coach Vermeil announced the open tryouts for the team. Other than that, getting prodded to seize the opportunity, the hard knocks, the need for inspiration (which comes from multiple sources, but most notably from his father, and a rejuvenating, muddy, "tank-lot" game in the rain with his buds from the old neighborhood) and the strategic feat to lead the team to an improbably win were all right on the money....what can I say...I've seen Disney sports movies before. While the movie did dramatize Papale's game winning play, they do a nice job at the end of the movie (before the credits roll) of showing Vince in action...and show the audience that he did in fact score a special teams TD against the Giants.
The movie does have some warts, like some of the stadium scenes are obviously F/x...the Vet is long gone, and the exterior Vet shots are EXCELLENT, but when they get to the interior shots and the backgrounds behind the live actors can be a bit, um, off... The movie does a good job with wardrobe and music to set the scene and recreate the feel of 70s. The most glaring error is a simple one...during the tryout, some of the Eagles fans break out in a modified Eagles fight song...sorry Disney, to my knowledge the Eagles Fight Song came into existence just a few seasons ago...now to be fair they don't sing the actual song, and I did NOT mind the nod to the fans, it just felt out of place...
The movie did an decent job of capturing the atmosphere of the Vet at the 700-level bleachers. For anyone who think Hollywood may have embellished it...um...NO...as someone who worked for Spectaguard and who did preseason assignments up there (before I wormed my way to a much better viewing position on the lower level) if anything they toned it down, way down...
Acting - Mark Wahlberg as a South Philly guy...ok, this is maybe the biggest obstacle for the movie to overcome, and, when you actually SEE Papale at the end of the movie, they obviously could have chosen someone a bit more, uh, ethnically comparable to Papale. Nor does Marky do a Philly accent very well....ok...if I wanted to, I could rip this aspect of the movie...but I don't want to...Wahlberg is likeable, while he does not exactly fit the role, the studio obviously wanted someone of even modest Hollywood recognition with which to try and have a decent draw and Wahlberg is sufficient for those purposes.
I give the movie Five (5) Cheesesteaks (with a soft pretzel on the side) for being a decent feel-good movie in general (not too cheesy, adequate acting, generally realistic) and a GREAT Eagles movie... say it with me E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!
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