The Comedy of Distance, The Tragedy of Separation

Today is Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday will be my last days in Huntsville. Next Wednesday (18th) will be my last day in the states.

This is kind of bizarre. I'll admit, I am excited. I really really want to go and am thrilled to go. Things are starting to get more real though! The implications of my departure are starting to set in. When I get back here next July, things could be way different... friends could have moved, gotten in relationships, places in huntsville could close... realistically I know it is just a year. That's long but not insanely long. Things will be different though. And all I'll be able to do this next year is sit back and watch as the other side of the world (meaning, those of you in the US) changes without me. It's the lack of control and the lack of being able to "be in it" that bothers me. It's that nagging thought of "would that have happened if I had been there?"

None of that changes my desire to go though. I'm so ready to go. And I know that I'm going to change as well. I don't know how I'll change, and I definitely don't know about any of the adventures I'll be going on. But things will change. That should make the contrast of changes back home that much more apparent. It'll be interesting to see.

Finally, I just wanted to note how awesome this summer has been. Seriously, it's been one of the best most fun and encouraging summers in memory. This past year I've admittedly gotten kind of bitter about the way some things seem to work in Huntsville, which was part of my shallow motivation to go somewhere else (though not at ALL my main reason, at all). This summer has changed my views in many ways and made me realize how much I really do love this place and love the people here! So awesome.

Things I'm going to miss... both shallow and real, all in no particular order whatsoever:
- Driving my jeep while I blare music, sing, and cut people off.
- Chilling with friends at Finnegans every Wednesday night listening to an amazing Irish band.
- Going to the YMCA to run on their comfortable air-conditioned track.
- Home cooked meals! Or just Mom's cooking in general!
- Family, can't leave family out.
- Seeing all of my nephew Eli's "firsts" (crawling, rolling over, first word, moving to solid food, etc etc).
- My crazy-awesome desktop PC.
- Playing online video games with friends (Bad Company 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands...).
- Tuesday nights at UAH.
- My DVD/Bluray collection (and the ginormous 60" TV to watch things on!)
- Being able to jump in the pool whenever I feel like...
- More specifically on the last one, swimming underwater!
- My dog, Buster! :( Also, Emily and Jeremy's dog Leia.
- All my favorite restaurants: The Poboy Factory, Papa Gyros, Phil Sandoval's, Greenbrier, Jason's Deli, Nothing But Noodles, Dallas Mill Deli, Big Ed's... etc
- Netflix!
- All of my friends... vague I know but I'm seriously not gonna name everyone! :)
- Friday's Guys Lunch at Dallas Mill Deli.
- Going to Hockey games, Basketball games, Arena Football games.
- Concerts! I don't think there will be many/any concerts.
- Monthly Paste Music Samplers, where will I find new great indie music!?
- Hanging out in good local coffee shops for hours on end
- A dozen other things I've surely forgotten

Reviews - Karate (?), Toys, and Inception

Haven't written anything in a while, sorry about that! I was planning on doing full length reviews for all of the movies below, but alas, I don't see myself getting to that. Ever. Thus, something is better than nothing!! So here goes.


This is one of those movies I had no intention of seeing. I have no real emotional connection to the original Karate Kid (though I did see it when I was younger), so the remake idea didn't appeal to me. However, I'm a sucker for popular opinion and once I saw that the reviews were in the positive, my interest was peaked.

The Karate Kid is all about Kung Fu, not Karate at all. Strike one against it. The cinematography is great... admittedly it mostly only shows the toursity side of China, but even still it's gorgeous. I loved that they actually did show old people on exercise machines outside and people dancing in the streets. I became emotionally involved in the movie the moment the plane started taking off for Beijing. The time-lapse of a 15 hour flight was awesome.

Overall this is a fun movie. It has some heart and I was genuinely interested in Dre's and Mr. Han's character arcs. Dre's little middle school relationship however was completely silly. I'd recommend most people watch this movie. Maybe rent it once it comes out, or if you have kids you should 100% watch it with them. It's a great great movie to take boys to, especially when very little live-action cinema is targeting them. The martial arts sequences are fun, the tournament is very exciting, and by the end of the movie you may even stand up and cheer like the lady in front of me in the theater did.

Potential based on Preview: 6/10
Overall Score: 7.5/10



Pixar does it again! Does this even need a review? It's Pixar's most famous property and we all know they have the golden touch. The same is true here. Toy Story 3 is incredibly good. Rather than really review it, I'll just say why it has a special place in my heart...

To start, it came out when I was about the same age as the main character, Andy. Given that my name is Andrew, we could relate. At the end of Toy Story 1, Andy gets a small dog named Buster. I have a small dog named Buster. In Toy Story 2, Woody meets a cowgirl whose owner's name is Emily. My sister's name is Emily. Basically as each new Toy Story came out, it borderline perfectly matched my age and point in life at the time. Is all of this a reason to love the films? No not really, but the fact that they hold up so well and were some of my favorite movies growing up give them a special spot in my heart.

Toy Story 3 is a perfect ending to a near perfect trilogy. It could even be the best film trilogy in existence. Toy Story 3 is emotionally satisfying, being both sad and happy at the same time. It has a great action/suspense sequence in the middle, it delves into very deep human emotions and even some philosophical issues... but it's still able to keep all of that together with one cohesive narrative. The characters stay true to themselves and everything ends exactly how it should. Exactly. I mean to the last frame you see on the screen, which references the very beginning of the first movie. Brilliant.

Potential based on Preview: 9/10
Overall Score: 9/10



Inception was easily my #1 most anticipated movie of the whole year. It's the 7th feature length movie from Christopher Nolan (Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight)... basically he's awesome. Lucky for me, Inception is just another notch in his list of awesome movies.

First off, let me say that this movie is absolutely non-stop information for the first hour and a half and non-stop crazy rollercoaster for the last hour. If you leave the theater for any reason or any length of time during the movie, you WILL miss something relatively important. Another consequence of this is that even if you stay in the theater the whole time, you have to be focused on the movie. That's not to say the plot is confusing. In fact, I think the plot is really really simple, more so than most movies these days. But the rules required for the plot and the manner in which the sequences occur can be jarring and trick people into thinking it is a confusing movie. Inception is not a confusing movie.

Just to say how much I like his movie, it's currently tied for #1 as my favorite movie of the year (if you read this blog ever you can guess my #1). The set pieces are mind blowing. The use of practical effects still confuses me... clearly the floaty-scenes were not CG, but how did they do it!? Mind has been boggled. Joseph Gorden Levitt steals the whole movie with his action-centric role. The love story between DiCaprio and his wife effects me every time. I can find very very few faults in Inception. The only major flaw is that the first hour and a half is not very re-watchable. Having seen Inception 3 times now, I'd now just like to fast forward to when the characters get in the 747. That's not to say the first hour and a half is bad, it just doesn't hold up to multiple viewings, and truly genius films should hold up all the way through.

Bottom line though, if you only see one movie this summer, make it Inception!! Actually you should probably see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World too, but it isn't out yet so you can't.

Potential based on Preview: 10/10
Overall Score: 9.5/10

Moving...

Ah yes, I now remember the joys of moving! Tomorrow I have to leave Dan's house, which will hence forth be known as Dan & Amy's house. I'm looking forward to going back home for a number of reasons...

- Free meals
- Free lodging
- Close to YMCA
- Big TV and Surround Sound
- Buster!
- Good neighborhood
- Hanging out and talking with parents
- POOL!!!
- Other reasons I'm forgetting

There are some freedoms I enjoy though out here that I can't/won't really have out there...

- Blaring music throughout the house
- Computer that is close to the router (thus a better internet connection)
- Freedom to do chores when I feel like or see the need for them
- Just generally being able to "do my own thing" without questions
- Not having a house phone go off every 2 hours
- Having control over the temperature of the building
- Being able to leave without having to let anyone know
- Just generically being in control of almost everything where I live
- Other reasons I'm forgetting

In the end, I think right now in my life it balances a bit more to living there than not living there! Anyhow, tomorrow I'll move the main furniture, kitchen stuff, and computer out and back to the house, all with hopefully enough time to still celebrate memorial day! As long as rain holds out anyways. Hopefully it will!

Wish me luck in this move! One more move left until I leave the country entirely!!! :D

Bonus Points!

Sometimes in life, just to make things more interesting, you give yourself bonus points for various daily activities. Some people may actually have a numeric system while others just give themselves a pat on the back. I'm of the belief that everyone does this to some extent or another, whether they realize it or not. Just for fun, here's some things I give myself bonus points for on a daily basis:

- Pulling in the driveway the instant a song is ending
- When switching lanes, not hitting any of the little reflective bumps in the road
- Hitting the "happy fun bump" at the Airport and Whitesburg intersection
- Successfully throwing trash into the trash can from a long distance
- Any and all "jinx" moments
- Remembering a name of a celebrity/place/movie/thing before anyone else in a group can think of it
- Having the right amount of milk in a carton for exactly 1 glass of milk
- Kicking my shoes off and having them land where I want them to, bonus points for them landing upright
- Being the first to comment on something on the internet
- Getting the absolute closest parking spot to where I'm going
- Successfully passing a group of really annoying cars that are difficult to get around
- Avoiding speed bumps

As you can see, I get most of my points while driving. What are some silly/pointless things you give yourself credit for doing?

Movie Quickies!

So I've seen a number of movies the past few weeks, many of them a bit older, some newer. Here are some quick reviews/opinions of them!


From Paris With Love - Fairly standard little action movie. Best thing about it was that it wasn't very long. Not very good but not entirely atrocious either. It had some funny moments.
Overall Score: 5/10

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly - A big "list of shame movie." And by that, I mean it's one of those movies I feel bad never having seen. Really good film too. Great acting, great story. It moves pretty slowly but even still I wouldn't have considered turning it off. Total classic.
Overall Score: 9/10

Kick Ass - The most recent release on here by far, Kick Ass only came out a few weeks ago and is still in theaters. I've seen it twice now so I must like it. It's fun, it's bloody, and it's mature, but it's also hilarious and is quite the interesting take on the super hero genre. It is not for kids even though it appears to be marketed for kids... kind of annoying because that means the target audience, guys my age, isn't going to see it. And if they did see it, they would LOVE it.
Overall Score: 9/10

12 Monkeys - I've been hearing cool things about this movie for a little while now and I must say, people are correct. A guy from the future is sent back to the past in order to fix the future, but he keeps being thrown back to the wrong time. This is another one of those that asks questions, namely "can we really change the past or are our futures already written?"
Overall Score: 8/10

Rear Window - Another "list of shame" movie. It's actually the first Alfred Hitchcock movie I'd ever seen. I really really loved this one. It clearly holds up well with time. It honestly felt more like a present day indie-movie considering its themes and smaller scale. Definitely an impressive work.
Overall Score: 10/10

My Kid Could Paint That - Random and interesting documentary about a 5 year old girl who paints abstract art and sells it for tens of thousands of dollars. Is this proof that abstract art is pointless? Was she the real artist? What's the nature of storytelling and is it all just one big lie? Very unique documentary with a lot of questions and very few answers.
Overall Score: 8/10

Moon - I actually saw this last summer when it came to Huntsville. I thought I reviewed it but apparently I didn't, or at least I can't find the review anywhere. This is a small sci-fi movie from a first time director starring primarily only one person, Sam Rockwell. The themes are awesome and the technological questions it raises are insightful. Sam Rockwell has one of the best performances I've ever seen. I get something new out of this movie each time I see it.
Overall Score: 9.5/10

Learning to Run

I wouldn’t consider myself to be ridiculously unhealthy like some people, but I’m definitely not in shape and could use a bit more cardio. And by that I mean a lot more cardio. The other day I decided to try running again. I quickly remembered why I hated it so much. However, I only hate it because I’m not healthy. It could create a vicious cycle.

Thus, I’m starting “The Couch-to-5K Running Plan.” My goal? To be able to run 2-3 miles straight, no breaks, by the time my friends get back from their summer project in the orient. That’s not a big deal for some people but it is for me! I'm getting sick of many many friends of mine running in 5Ks and running together etc while I sit on my bum and wish I could do that without utterly dying.

Here goes nothing. Wish me luck.

Review - Iron Man 2

I'll start by saying that I don't want people to get the wrong idea about Iron Man 2 when reading this review. It is not a bad movie. I enjoyed watching it. It was fun seeing it opening night and the company was good (though the crowd was a bit rowdy, which is to be expected I suppose). Iron Man 2 is an acceptable sequel and does a lot of things okay. It also does a lot of things not-okay.

Iron Man 2 is plagued by excessiveness, in a bad way. It has too much of everything. It has too much humor, and all of it felt forced. It repeats many of the same jokes from the first movie without making them any more interesting (yes, we get it, you have a stupid robot that knocks stuff over). Most of the laughs are cheap, predictable, and cater to the lowest common denominator. Tony Stark's narcissism is so overblown from the first film that it stops being funny and just becomes obnoxious. There are too many characters that we are supposed to care about, and I found myself not caring about any of them. The movie just has so much going on that it can't dedicate the time necessary to actually make me care and connect.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I didn't like the action either. Once again, it was "too much." By that I don't mean there was too much action in the movie. In fact, large portions of the movie had zero action. Instead, I mean the action that was present was so busy with so many enemies and so much going on that I could barely follow it. Iron Man 1's action was incredible. It was simple. It had a "wow" factor with every moment. Iron man would fly in, land, quickly disable like 8 people, smoothly take out a tank like it was nothing... there was never all that much going on, but every single moment just screamed "cool." It never gave me too much and always left me wanting a little bit more. Iron Man 2 completely fails in this area. I couldn't wait for the action scenes to end. Also, I'm really bored by Iron Man fighting other Iron Men. The worst scene in Iron Man 1 was when he faced off with Obadiah. This movie was that scene blown to more epic proportions. Yes, we get it, Tony fights other guys in metal suits that are trying to copy him. Give me something interesting! Batman had Ras Al Ghul, Scarecrow, Joker, Two-Face, Penguin. Spider Man had Green Goblin, Dr. Oc, Sandman, Venom. Iron Man has Big Iron Man, Friend Iron Man, Lots of Iron Men, and Iron Man With Electricity. It's stupid. Finally, my last complaint about the action has to do with Black Widow. Her scenes were terrible. T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. Whenever she did cool fighting moves it looked like frames were skipping and she was either CG or her stunt double was doing stuff. Then, it would show a close up of Scarlett's face looking awesome. Then back to a long shot of choppiness, CG, and stunt doubles. Then back to a close up of her face to create the illusion that she did that. Once again, stupid.

I'm usually not one to nitpick about things being unrealistic in movies, especially super hero movies, but I was really bothered by a lot of little stupid occurrences in the movie. For instance, Tony's creation of a new element was probably the dumbest thing I've seen in a movie all year. It made zero sense. He shot a laser onto a triangle and created a new element. What!? At least the ridiculous science of the first movie I could somewhat grasp. Another scene that really bugged me was when Whiplash first encounters Tony at the race track. He perfectly aimed his slashes cutting cars in half, dodging rubble, etc... it was awesome. Then he gets right next to the car trying to protect Tony and about all he can do is slash the doors and mirrors off. Watching him slash at the car made me think that he actually wanted everyone in that scenario to survive and he was just trying to scare them... which makes no sense and isn't what was intended. Sure, you could argue that he was just hit by a car and is less capable, but he seemed more than capable fighting Iron Man after all of that. Also, I think Tony Stark's driver must be a super hero too. How else could he drive the opposite direction on a Formula 1 track while cars are still racing and never get hit? And after huge explosions and cars being obliterated, why was the race continuing? Shouldn't the guys in radios have told them to stop? Maybe? Then there was Tony's party when he was dressed in the Iron Man suit. There were people all around him, borderline crowding him, and he was blowing up wine bottles, glasses, windows, etc, while all of them cheered. Glass was falling ALL OVER THEM. Yet they just stood there and beg for more. WHAT!? REALLY?

Not only did I not like the action and find a lot of stupidly distracting scenarios, but I thought the flow of the movie was quite bad. I think this has to do with the impromptu nature of the script, where actors would really decide on the fly what to say a lot of times. It caused many of the scenes to transition oddly. The huge cast and multi-story-line structure also really caused each scene to connect poorly to the following scenes, really disrupting flow. It made Iron Man 2 feel very long. At 2 hours and 5 minutes, it already wouldn't be considered a short movie, but it felt longer to me because of the poor flow. Finally, I felt like the atmosphere in the movie was really off. Iron Man 1 was bright and big. It had cool flights in the clouds on a sunny day, the scale felt large as he traveled all around the middle east, in LA, etc. Iron Man 2 is either at the Stark Expo in NYC or at Tony's house. It just felt small, especially for the amount of things going on. On top of that, it was night time in all the big fight scenes (not counting race track). The best fight scenes of the first Iron Man were in the day where you could really see everything and get an epic sense of scale. Here, it was all at night making it hard to follow and much less visually interesting. The cool factor Iron Man really has is that he's in a suit that can fly. Putting that suit in the dark takes away a lot of the crowd pleasing eye candy and flight scenes.

There. I got that out of my system. Now for the positive. All of the actors were really good. Mickey Rourke did a great job as a Russian, Sam Rockwell played a fantastic Iron Man wannabe jerk, Scarlett Johansson did a good job as a secretive and shadowy operative, Robert Downey Jr was his hilarious self as usual, and Gwyneth Paltrow... well, she was okay, I never find her to be too impressive in anything she is in. Don Cheadle did an acceptable job replacing Terrance Howard as Rhody.

I also really enjoyed how Iron Man 2 connected itself to other movies in the Marvel lineup. The subtle lines indicating that SHIELD was going after The Hulk, the old Captain America shield, Thor's hammer... most people watching the movie won't catch all the references, but I think Marvel is doing a very good job bringing the films together for the eventual Avenger movie. That should be great fun. And hopefully it'll be more fun than Iron Man 2. It better be!

In short, Iron Man 2 was about what I expected after watching the trailer. I was not disappointed by it mainly because my expectations were a bit iffy to begin with. It's not a bad movie, but it definitely isn't great. It's an acceptable addition to Marvel's lineup and should transition well into their next movies. If you enjoyed the first movie, like summer blockbusters in general, and can turn your mind off a bit, you probably won't be disappointed by Iron Man 2. You may even like it. But Iron Man 1 is a better movie.

Potential based on Preview: 6/10
Actual movie: 6/10