Do yourself a favor

If you haven't watched Firefly, click there and check it out.  Word of warning, it sorts the episodes by Air Date, so you'll have to pay attention to the episode numbers.  For those of you for whom the pain is still fresh, sorry about that but if you go there note the order.  For those of you who are unaware, that out-of-order air date killed this incredible show.  It is almost humorous in its stupidity.

I aim to misbehave

Movie Night: "The Tower Heist"

I remember seeing the trailers for this one and thinking, "hmmm, yeah looks ok."  We decided to grab a movie for the weekend and boy, were we pleasantly surprised.  Mrs. 45er and I both favor comedies.  This was a heist comedy full of great actors, new and older.   Just a great flick.  The comedy is strong and I actually laughed, which I rarely do for a movie.  Don't look for a strong heist portion because this is primarily a comedy.  However, there were some twists that I didn't see.  I give it a recommendation. Spend a little over a buck and rent it.  You won't be disappointed.

Movie Night, Cowboys, Aliens and Adventure

We got two of them:  "Tintin" and "Cowboys and Aliens."  You know what?  Both were really pretty good.  We got "Tintin" for the kids, so we thought.  It was still ok, but there was some content that was a bit on the older kid side.  Still, it was ok.  What I was surprised about was the awesome firearm animation.  I mean, just incredible.  There were MP40s, Lugers and Tintin himself carried an FN Hi-power, which I thought was pretty sweet.  Yes, there were your typical mistakes.  If you take a magazine out of a gun that has been in use and there is a round in the top of the magazine, you don't have one round left, you have two.  But anyways, it was done really well.  For those of you that may not be aware, there is a pretty cool website that can help you with your gun identification for movies.  Sometimes it's just fun to look back at older movies and see what was in them.

"Cowboys and Aliens" was surprisingly good IF and I mean IF you like Sci Fi and Western genres.  If you don't like Sci Fi and get it because you like Westerns and Harrison Ford, you will probably think it is goofy and ridiculous.  The story was done well and the actors were very good.  It was interesting to see Harrison Ford play a bad guy.  It's worth it for a rental.  Were there issues with this one, too?  Sure there were.  It's made by Hollywood, but overall it was fun and entertaining.

Movie Night

The Mrs. and I went to see "Act of Valor" today.  Every blog I have read has had high praise for the movie.  I'll just go ahead and lump mine onto the pile.  This movie was pretty incredible.  There were some points where the acting was a little weak (what did you expect, they aren't actors by trade), but the sequences where they let the operators operate was over and above fantastic.  It's a great flick and I recommend seeing it on the big screen before it gets out of the theater.  I just don't think a living room TV will quite do it justice.

Movie review(ish) - "Rum Diary", the movie without an ending

So, the wife and I had purchased a couple of Groupons the other day.  A great deal on a movie and a drink at Alamo Drafthouse.  If you haven't been to one, treat yourself and go.  They're an awesome place to watch a movie.  So, we decided to see "Rum Diary".  You know, the new Johnny Depp deal from Hunter S. Thompson and blah, blah, blah.  It looked kind of funny so we decided that was the one.  Well, it was actually pretty good.  Depp and the other actors did a good job.  The story was just fine, lots of boozy acting and the funny parts were funny.  So, here's my part of the story.  I had a couple of drinks with my meal during the movie, so I really had to use the restroom.  I figured by the way the storyline was going that I might as well go because they hadn't even gotten to the big ending and that would probably take a while to unfold.  I came back a few minutes later and the movie was over.  I asked my wife, "well, what happened".  Her answer: "nothing".  They literally built the movie up to the ending and it was just...  meh, sorry.  What's more, after the not ending, it was the literal sail into the sunset and epilogue wording on the screen.  I can understand if you've told an actual story, then decide to say how your character finished their life.  In this instance, we're talking about a work of fiction, so this type of thing plays more like, "sorry, we ran out of time for the whole story, so this is how it ends".  The previews and advertisements should have said: "from the alcohol-addled mind of Hunter S. Thompson" and then I would have said, "Oh, I get it".

As it stands, I guess I just don't get a story without an ending.

Make my day

A friend has a timely post on his blog.  I watched Dirty Harry this past weekend.  You know the classic line:  "...the most powerful handgun in the world...".  Well, in 1971 at the time the movie was made it really wasn't (technically).  This was. (Edit for clarification, I just mean the caliber)  It's ok, I'm going to give it a pass because A. the .454 Casull wasn't available for commercial use at the time B. it's Clint Eastwood and C. the movie is just awesome.  I'm glad to hear That Guy is planning on trying to take something with a handgun this year.  That should make things interesting on the lease.