“Salt” (starring Angelina Jolie in the titular role) is an action-adventure, roller coaster thrill ride, and it is also a transparent and predictable double-agent espionage film. I’m not going to spoil the movie and give away the plot. The movie does a good enough job on its own. Employing one of the oldest tricks in the book, the film confirms for the audience that Salt is a Russian sleeper double-agent agent very early in the film. I’m sure that wasn’t the filmmaker’s intention, thinking that he was being clever with the spider routine. But after seeing the spider for a second time in her New York hotel room, all of her actions after that weren’t only anticipated, but expected.
The only thing that I did wonder about throughout the movie is how much of a beating can one woman take? Even for a spy movie it was strange to me to see a woman subjected to that much violence. My curiosity got the best of me and I did a little research and found out that the role of “Salt” was originally written for a man—Tom Cruise. And sadly, since I’m not going to go into any detail about the plot, there really isn’t much else to say about the film.
The biggest surprise for me was the ending of the film—although obviously setting itself up for a sequel. It was as if the movie ran on too long; they didn’t know where stop it, couldn’t come up with a clever ending, and instead gave us an unexpected black screen with credits rolling. The near sold out audience I was with walked out in near silence, although I could still hear them grumbling with disenchantment.
Should you pass the Salt? I would say yes, and wait for it to come out on DVD, unless you’re a die-hard Angelina Jolie fan and love predictable action-adventure spy movies. I’ll have to give this one 2 fingers out of 5.
I can sum this movie up in one word: WOW! What a breath of fresh air. This is a movie that sets its own rules, and if you don’t follow them, it’s easy to get lost between the dream world and the real world. The things you might not understand at first, the story is forgiving enough to come full circle and explain them to you later. This is the type of movie I’ve been waiting to see. This isn’t a remake or rehashed story, but a fresh idea. Here are some cool words this movie introduces that you should keep in mind while watching—“Limbo” and “totem”.
Inception is a movie about a team of dream thieves led by Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can enter the dreams of others and steal their secrets. This is accomplished by a device the size of a brief case that tethers the dreamer’s minds together. In a bid to gain his freedom and see his children again, the tortured “Extractor” Cobb is hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plant an idea in the subconscious mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) the son of his employer’s corporate rival. The goal is this idea will dismantle his rival’s empire.
He is joined on this mission by a new “Architect” named Ariadne (Ellen Page) who some of you may know from the recent Cisco TV commercials or better yet as Kitty Pryde (Shadow Cat) in X-Men 3. For those of you familiar with Greek mythology, Ariadne helped Theseus find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Much in the same way this modern day Ariadne helps Cobb by not only designing labyrinths (dream worlds) of the mind, but helping Cobb navigate out of his own. I found the character a bit too “all knowing” for a first timer on a mission as deep as this one. Even though she is “the best and brightest”, many of the things she knew and experienced should have been a bit over her head. Which makes me wonder if Ariadne was even real, or just a projection in Cobb’s dreams, just like his wife Mal?
I went into this movie expecting it to be a lot like the Matrix. But it wasn’t. The fight scenes in the hallway with “Point Man” Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) may look Matrix-like with the character able to bend reality to his will and defy gravity, but actually the reverse is happening.
One of the rules about dreaming that is thankfully tossed out the window is if you die in your dream you die in real life. What interesting possibilities this creates. In this reality if you die in your dream you simply wake up. Simple and true-to-life. Second, time goes much more slowly in a dream which is also true. Years can pass while only minutes elapse in the waking world. But, if you’re sedated (as this dream team is) and several levels deep into a dream within a dream within a dream…and you die…you could end up in… Limbo. Where even a few moments of real time could seem to be decades in Limbo and the person would not be able to distinguish this dream world from the real world. Sounds scary huh?
Because the film sets its own rules; it’s hard to know if it violates them when something seems amiss or hard to explain, or if it’s just the quirkiness of the dream that doesn’t always make sense to the dreamer.
The ending of the film left the audience gasping. Here is where the totem comes into play. This is the type of movie that is worth paying to go see. The movie is brilliant and you’ll need your thinking cap for this one. I give it 5 out of 5 fingers.
I took advantage of a free pass and went to see Iron Man 2. I had put off seeing it after hearing bad reviews and talking to a few friends who didn’t have encouraging things say about it. I was not pleased with the first Iron Man movie, although everyone else seemed to like it. The origin was too long and drawn out and we only got to see Iron Man at full strength for about five minutes when he went to the middle east to destroy the stolen Stark Industries weapons. Is it possible to compromise when writing superhero origin stories? To take into account some of the audience actually reads comics and knows how Iron Man came to be--and don't want to be led down that long and boring path again? Again I draw reference to The Incredible Hulk, which had the best origin ever in a movie--told during the opening credits.
The final battle in Iron Man 1 was incredibly disappointing as Iron Man fought at partial-strength, using the out-dated arc-reactor to power his armor. Iron Man viewers were cheated in so many ways at not seeing an all-out, full-strength fight between Iron Man and “Iron Monger”.
All that to say, Iron Man 2 wasn’t much better than the first movie except for the last 20 minutes. They might as well have told the entire origin all over again in this second film, that's how bored I was. There were even moments when I thought about walking out. Looking back on both movies, I think they should have been titled “Tony Stark”, because Iron Man only makes brief appearances in both. This might not in and of itself be a problem; except that Tony Stark is a drunken, egotistical, narcissistic bore who doesn't deserve the amount of screen time he's given. Sorry Robert Downey, Jr. it’s not your fault. You did an excellent job playing a shallow and annoying character. Personally I’d rather see more of Iron Man and less of Tony Stark.
There were several things that stuck out in this film that made me sit up and take notice. One was Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who normally in the comics would be called the “Black Widow”. I don’t know what it is about Hollywood and their aversion to using superhero code names. Even in the credits, Scarlett Johansson is listed as “Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff”. Even when she reveals herself in full costume, she’s still not called the Black Widow. Aside from that the woman can fight! And seeing the Black Wi…err...Natasha Romanoff in action against a cadre of guards was just plain awesome and jaw-dropping! She had cool gadgets too. But the main weapon she uses in the comic books-- the “Widow’s Bite” was ignored. This is especially disturbing because she was wearing the distinctively shaped bracelets which fire the "Widow's Bite" energy blasts, as well as "Widow's line" grappling hooks, and tear gas pellets. So why wear the bracelets if they’re not going to be used?
Even more un-true to the character is that Natasha, who is from Russia, never spoke with a Russian accent even when she was no longer under cover.
I’m only going to touch on the villain is this movie Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). In the comics he would be called “Whiplash”, yet another character that goes without a code name. I’m told at the end of the movie, when wearing the suit of armor, he’s supposed to be the “Crimson Dynamo” but I would have never made that connection from watching the movie. And I won’t even go into how wrong this is from a comic book standpoint. Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo are two separate villians in the Marvel Universe. The other thing that made me take notice was the extremely brief cameo appearance of “Bambi Arbogast” and only true Iron Man fans would know who she is. So you give us Bambi but butcher everything else?
Finally, the character of James Rhodes, who was re-cast, and played by Don Cheadle. (The name "War Machine" was the only code name mentioned in the film, but it was mentioned--now really, was that so hard?). I strongly objected to the casting of Terrance Howard as “Rhodey” in the first film. He just didn’t have the toughness to play a military role. Now as much as I respect Don as an actor, I don’t think he was right for the role either.
My choice for the part of Rhodey would be a versatile actor named Russell Hornsby who most recently starred in the TV series Lincoln Heights.
The thing that was odd to me about Rhodey is how easily he was able to control the Iron Man armor as soon as he put it on. When Stark flew in the armor in the first film, there was a bit of a learning curve. Not so for Rhodey. I can only hope he wore the armor in the time between Iron Man 1 and 2 and is familiar with how it operates--although the film gives us no indication of that.
The last 20 minutes of the film provided more action than I could have possibly imagined or dared to ask for. It was absolutely fantastic! This is what I was looking for at the end of the first movie. Iron Man at full-strength--and in this second move--even more powerful than ever! I was on the edge of my seat. And there is even a new weapon in his arsenal that is beyond cool. But does 20 minutes of all-out action make up for a movie filled with inconsistencies and character innaccurices; that had me propping my eyes open with toothpicks early on just to stay awake? Out of 5 fingers I’d have to give it 2.
Vampires are all the rage these days in both the theatre and on TV. Going into this movie I didn’t know what to expect. Was this going to be a re-hash of the many vampire movies that came before? Pleasantly it was not.
In this world, vampires are the dominant species. They run the cities, the government, the military, and go to work every day. Almost everyone is a vampire, due to an unspecified “pandemic” that is only hinted at in the movie. And herein lies the problem. Vampires need human blood to survive. With almost everybody a vampire, there just isn’t enough human blood to go around. Humans are a rare and hot commodity and the military is tasked with hunting them down to fill their blood repositories.
Set in a stylized World War II-esque backdrop (although the year is 2019), blood is rationed to the vampire populace by the cup. As the movie begins, blood is so scarce that the blood being rationed is only 20% pure. Those who do not or cannot feed on blood, due to privilege and other societal factors, begin to devolve into giant predatory bat-like creatures that become a "menace to society".
Where would vampires be without science? The solution to the dwindling food supply is to create a “blood substitute”. After countless trials they were still nowhere near finding a viable solution. As fate would have it, the altruistic lead vampire scientist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) ends up meeting a band of humans led by Audrey (Claudia Karvan) who show him an alternative. Here we meet Elvis (Willem Defoe), a former vampire who can potentially save the human race.
If you were a vampire and you were offered a “cure” would you take it? Take a minute and think about it. Who wants to give up the illusion of immortality; to be immune to sickness and disease, to exist forever without aging, to have superhuman abilities, to have the insatiable craving for human blood and to never see the light of day without bursting into flame? What no one?
Why is this black man in this film? To die of course. (Actor--Christopher Kirby)
I’ll spare you the descriptions of the gory blood bath that ensues over the unforeseen repercussions of this cure.
And in the end, our trio of saviors, ride off into the sunset in a world filled with vampires with a cure that nobody wants. Although the conclusion was unsatisfying to me, I liked the movie for being innovative. Certainly worth a DVD rental. I’ll give it 3.5 fingers out of 5.
I went to check out Predators over the weekend and I was all set to come back and write a rave review. After all, this movie had to be better than the Alien vs. Predator sequels—and it was. The only problem is I fell asleep half way through the movie, which is never a good sign. It starts out great, with adrenaline rushing action. The main character plummets from the sky (although reminiscent of the Wolverine video game) and lands awkwardly and painfully in the jungle after his parachute almost fails to open.
If you don't know what the movie is about, it's about 7 soldier, murderer, mercenary, criminal types who are captured (all they remember is a flash of white light) and left stranded on a planet and hunted by a trio of Predators.
When the movie started, for all we knew, the captives could have been dropped off into any jungle on Earth. Too slowly but surely it's revealed this is anything but Earth. As the movie progressed I couldn't help fight the feeling of been-there-done-that. True to form in most Hollywood survivor movies, whenever a black man is part of the group, he is almost certainly going to die. The only twist here is that he doesn’t die first.
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Mombasa
Fighting through fatigue and being awakened by my own snoring, I came away from this movie feeling pretty neutral and strangely well-rested. Certainly it was better than the previous sequels, but I think this movie might work better as a DVD rental for most. Out of 5 fingers, I'd give it a 3.
For all you Miami fans out there, last night July 8th, 2010 was a historic night when LeBron James announced his intent to join the Miami Heat. With Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, they become an instant contender in the East, even bigger than the “Big Three”in Boston. But if falls to Pat Riley to build the right supporting cast around these 3 superstars to see if they will win the Championship next season and for years to come.
For Cleveland Cavaliers fans, it was a night of shock, bitter disappointment, sadness, disbelief and betrayal (I could go on, but I think I’ll stop here). I’m not even a Cavaliers fan, but I was sure he was going to stay. How could LeBron leave this Championship-starved franchise and a team that was built solely around and for him? Perhaps it was too little, too late. Not adding enough pieces quickly enough. But he was “the guy” and the Cavaliers his team.
The firing of Head Coach Mike Brown and hiring Bryon Scott probably didn’t help Cleveland’s chances. Despite Scott’s success in New Jersey and New Orleans (fired from both jobs), he developed quite a reputation as a controlling taskmaster.
With the utterance of a few words—“Miami Heat”, “South Beach”, the Cleveland Cavaliers went from a perennial playoff contender to a lottery team.
And who could have expressed their disappoint more than the Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, in the scathing letter below:
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.
There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.
You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.
You have given so much and deserve so much more.
In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:
"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE"
You can take it to the bank.
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
Just watch.
Sleep well, Cleveland.
Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....
I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:
DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....
Dan
LeBron, you were the man. While we can all understand you wanting to win a championship, you’ve cheapened your victory. By going to the Miami Heat, you joined Dwyane Wade’s team and in Miami, he is the man. Now you have to share the spotlight when before the spotlight was always on you and you alone. Let’s just hope that the spotlight is big enough for the both of you. And remember, we are all witnesses.
In an earlier blog, I asked should you upgrade to iOS4? Below are some reasons and advantages to upgrading. Keep in mind that iOS4 is compatible with the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch and not all of the features are available for original iPhone 3G owners.
Multitasking support for third-party apps
Fast app switching
Folders for grouping apps
Bluetooth keyboard support
Unified inbox in Mail
App-level control over Location Services
Home screen wallpapers
App notifications that don’t require server connections
iBooks support
If you agree that upgrading your OS is right for you, here are 5 easy steps you can follow:
Step 1: Update iTunes
To upgrade your iPhone or iPod Touch to Apple's iOS 4 firmware, make sure you're running the latest version of iTunes on your computer. After installation, you may need to restart your computer.
Step2: Connect Your Device
Once you've made sure iTunes is up to date, connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer using the included USB cable. If iTunes doesn't launch automatically, you'll need to launch it manually.
Step 3: Select device Once iTunes is open, and your device is connected, select your device in the iTunes sidebar so that the summary page (shown here) is visible. Take notice of the button for Check for Update but don't click it quite yet.
Step 4: Create back up Just to be safe, make a backup of your settings prior to upgrading the firmware. To do this, right-click on the device icon in the iTunes sidebar and select Back Up. It should only take a minute to create a backup, and it's time well-spent. If anything goes awry during your iOS update, you can use this same menu to select the Restore from Backup option.
Step 5: Check for updates Finally, click the Check for Update button from the device summary page. If your iPhone or iPod Touch is compatible with iOS 4, iTunes will tell you that an update is available for download and will guide you through the installation.
There have been a host of complaints stemming from Apple’s new operating system for the iPhone 3G and 3Gs known as iOS4. Released on June 21, 2010, I’ve been reluctant to upgrade my 3Gs after my phone was “bricked” by an earlier OS update. For those who have never experienced the horror and agony of a bricked phone, just imagine the iPhone as expensive paper weight. It won’t boot up, you can’t make or receive calls, can’t text or e-mail—everything gone and you’re completely cut off from the outside world. This is what is displayed on your iPhone after you update the OS and it fails:
Fortunately I still had a land line I could use for emergencies. After spending nearly an hour with Apple Tech Support to no avail, an appointment was made for me at the closest Apple Store to have my phone restored. The restore went without a hitch, but the phone was wiped completely clean, all the contacts, e-mails, Safari favorites—gone! The geek that I am, I backed up my iPhone regularly with iTunes on my PC. When I got home I was able to restore all my settings and contacts from the backup. Whew! Let that be a lesson to everyone—always back up your iPhone!
Let’s take a look at some of the problems that have been reported by courageous iPhone owners.
Synchronization Issues With Exchange?
“Complaints are starting to mount from iOS 4 users that are having a difficult time synchronizing their iDevice with their Exchange environments. The bug in question prevents iOS 4 from synchronizing email, calendar, or contact data from a users Exchange server to an iOS 4 device." – Andrew Munchbach
Blurry Photos?
“iOS 4 has been available to the masses for only three hours, but we’ve already received a rash of bug complaints from early adopters. According to several of our readers, all photos synced to their device through iPhoto have been down-sampled so much that they’re now very, very blurry. We’ve tested this out on a few devices and have noticed the same thing.” –Michael Bettiol
"False" Multi-Tasking?
“Writer Jared Newman does give some praise where it’s due: Yes, you can now listen to Pandora while you check your email. But “some of the iPhone's elegance is lost, and the advantages you'd gain from true multitasking aren't there either.”
By "true" multitasking, he means that with a few exceptions (primarily music apps, VoIP and GPS), the iPhone doesn’t really let you run applications in the background. Rather, it freezes them, waiting for you to return. (And many apps don’t even do that yet; they start back from the beginning and reload when you return to them.) This isn’t multitasking, it’s simply pausing one thing to do another. As Newman notes, even the iPhone’s built-in YouTube app isn’t multitask-capable: You can’t buffer a video in the background and do something else while the movie loads. Downloads freeze unless you’re staring at that spinning wheel.
Newman’s complaint about inelegance is even more spot-on. You get around iOS 4’s running apps by double-clicking the home button to pull up your running apps, then scrolling through a list of every app you’ve started since you turned on your phone? Seriously: Every app is represented here, including text messaging, the phone dialer, and the camera. If your phone has been in use for awhile, this list can be daunting, and manually closing out of apps you’re not actually using is a headache. Multitasking should make it faster to get from one app to another. Apple's way slows you down and requires extra work from the user.
I’m hopeful that Apple will iron the kinks out of this system — just as I hope developers will get on the stick and update their apps so that multitasking is actually useful — but I remain strikingly disappointed that Apple released such a half-baked update in the first place.” –Christopher Null
And here are some other complaints:
Update deletes all contacts, and backups will not restore them
MMS no longer works
Push notifications not functioning
Update fails and device reboots endlessly
In all fairness to Apple, some iOS4 updates have gone smoothly. No errors in downloading the OS and absolutely no problems with the install. All data and contact information still intact.
How was your experience with upgrading to iOS4? And for those of you who haven’t upgraded—will you take that roll of the dice? I’m already "brick shy" so I’ll be holding out for iOS4.1.
