Alphabetical Movie – In Bruges
For the entirety of In Bruges, the main character complains about the fact that he is stuck in Bruges.
Bruges, for those of you who don’t know, is located in Belgium and it is, according to Ray, the worst shithole town on the planet. In watching the film, I came away with the impression that Ray was probably a bit off base in his assessment.
Alphabetical Movie – The Impossible Years
The Impossible Years is a film dripping with faux 60’s feminism. It thinks it is about empowerment and rebellion. It is really just a film in which we are taught that female empowerment is all about teenaged girls turing into respectable young women as soon as they find the right man.
Theoretially a comedy, the movie stars David Niven as a psychologist who is supposedly an expert on teenagers but can’t manage to keep his own daugther in line. This has a lot more to do with his inability to follow his own advice than with any shortcoming on the part of his daughter.
My cold dead hands
I’ve been thinking a lot about Americans and our guns lately. I’ve wanted to do a blog post about it but I’ve been reticent because gun rights are only slightly less divisive than abortion rights and – well – the people who disagree with me have guns.
That was a joke.
Alphabetical Movie – Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Here’s the thing about the Ice Age franchise – which is about to release it’s fourth film.
The movies are good but not particularly memorable. I’ve never walked out of the theatre thinking “damn, I just wasted ninety minutes of my life” but I also never walk out of the theatre thinking about scenes that I just totally loved.
New comdey! Waka Waka!
This Monday, I have two new silly bits over at the Vilification Tennis Website.
The first is a Movie Dick article that takes aim at “Twilight” fans. I know, I know, easy target.
The second is a new episode of our Vilification Tennis Podcast – Episode 5, Geoffrey’s Rastafarian Balls.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 6/1
Missed last week because I was on vacation so here’s a couple weeks’ worth of annoyances.
Disney Changes it’s FastPass System – Sort of
I’m not going to try to explain the whole thing but the basic issue is that Disney has a system wherein you can get a pass that will allow you to go to the front of the line for various popular rides. The catch is that you can’t go on the ride until a particular time. So if you want to go on Space Mountain, you get a fast pass for – say – 10:00 and come back later rather than waiting in a 40 minute line.
Now the fast passes have always given you an hour window. If your pass starts at 10:00, it ends at 11:00. Except it never did. They have been honored all day for as long as the system has been around (over ten years now).
Until now. Now if you have a fast pass that says 10:00 to 11:00, you’d better get there between 10:00 and 11:00. No exceptions.
So great – if I’ve got a lunch reservation at one and the fast pass time available is 1:00 to 2:00, I’m out of luck. This wouldn’t bug me so much if the rules had always been that way. No matter what it says on the pass, though, they have never enforced it. Until now.
It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing.
Why did they do it? I don’t know for sure but I would guess they did it to cut down on the wait in the standby line. I would imagine most people using a fast pass wait well past the posted time on their pass and that serves to back up the standby line more and more as the day progresses. Most people with a 9:45 fast pass don’t show up until much later. I know I didn’t . Also, by having the fast pass expire, not everyone who gets one will end up using it. Overall, it means fewer people going through the fast pass line every hour which means the standby line is probably at least fifteen minutes faster.
That’s great for them. But what about me?
New Thing! Geeks Without God
I’m pretty excited to share some information about a new podcast I’ll be hosting with Molly and Nick Glover called “Geeks Without God.” We’ll be recording our first episode LIVE at CONvergence on Saturday at 9:30 AM.
Yes. 9:30 AM on Saturday. I know. I’m not looking forward to it either.
Alphabetical Movie – Ice Age
I realize I may be saying this with something less than all the possible information on the subject but Ice Age had the single funniest trailer ever produced. In fact, it was because of that trailer and that trailer alone that I first watched the film. I didn’t even care of the movie was any good. I felt that I owed it to the film because of how much the trailer made me laugh.
Alphabetical Movie – I was a Male War Bride
I was a Male War Bride stars Cary Grant as a WWII French espionage agent who marries an American and has trouble emigrating to the United States. It is pretty much an opportunity for Grant to look really annoyed and/or resigned to his fate. He was really good at that.
Basically, the movie is Father Goose without Leslie Caron and a gaggle of French school girls.
For the entire film, though, I was distracted by one niggling detail. A name.
Alphabetical Movie – The Hustler
I’ll bet that most people I know haven’t seen The Hustler.
Oh, they’ve heard of the film. I’m sure they have. Heck, many of them have seen the sequel, The Color of Money but they have never felt the need to visit the original film for reasons that have more to do with laziness than actual lack of interest.
Grail Diary 