Southland Tales

As you may know, Southland Tales was just released on DVD this past Tuesday.

As such, I was able to rent a copy on Wednesday. Here’s my impressions of the film.

Here’s the plot description on Netflix:

Set in a dystopian near-future, director Richard Kelly’s visionary tale mines post-Sept. 11 angst and paranoia as Los Angeles teeters on the verge of social, financial and ecological catastrophe. While a heat wave takes its toll on the sprawling metropolis, one man foresees the coming apocalypse — but can he prevent it? The Rock heads the star-studded cast, which includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake and Miranda Richardson.

First of all, the cast is pretty star studded. The description picks out some of the lower quality stars, but there are definitely some good actors in this movie. Some of the notable cast include; Wallace Shawn, Charles Armstrong, John Larroquette, Christopher Lambert, and Mandy Moore. The movie plays out almost like a Where’s Waldo for Movie buffs.

I’ve heard people saying that Southland Tales is no Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly’s debut film). That is a load of crap. In fact, I would go in almost the exact opposite direction. This movie is almost a complete rip-off of Donnie Darko (sans comedic aspects).

Let’s look at some of the plot similarities.

If I ran… the Sci-Fi Channel

I’m hoping to make the “If I ran…” into a recurring series where I say what I would have done if I had control of something or another.

In this premiere addition, I’m looking at the Sci-Fi Channel.

The Sci-Fi channel just came out with their upcoming TV line-up. You can check it out here. For the most part, the new shows sound like retreads (i.e. Galactica spin-off series, Alice in Wonderland by the Tin Men guys, Stranded, and Scare Tactics 2: Mind Control). The ones that aren’t retreads seem to have an obvious connection to some other Sci-Fi media. Gemini Division is an obvious rip-off of They Live. Deputized seems like a knock off of the Green Lantern story.

The Sci-Fi channel needs help… and I’m the man to give it to them.

Which Sport is the Most Fun?

I like sports. I started my enjoyment of sports as little kid when my dad introduced me to baseball (i.e. he was watching a game on TV and I started asking him questions about it). Since that time, I have gone on to play a lot of different sports over the years.

I decided to make a run down of all the major sports and the various minor sports I have played. From this list I will give out the award for Most Fun Sport.

Toy Story Mania

Check out this video. It is a promotional video about the upcoming ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), Toy Story Mania.

From what is shown in the video and what I have read, it looks kind of like this is a combination of the Buzz Lightyear shooter attraction (in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom) and the Pirates of the Carribean game/attraction (the interactive one at Disney Quest).  This is a good thing because both Buzz and PotC are fun. So, this ride will likely be a great attraction once it opens.

Playoffs? Who Said Anything about Playoffs?

I just wanted to give all you Chicago Bulls fans a heads up. As of right now (the morning of 3/12/08) the Bulls are a half game away from the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.

So, an Atlantic Hawks loss or a Chicago Bulls win means they take over the playoff spot. I guess this gives you something to root for over the next 18 games.

Indy Poster

John Cusack’s Best

If you enjoy movies, chances are you like John Cusack or at least one of his movies. I have enjoyed a bunch of his movies of the years. As such, I decided to go through and break down all of the Cusack movies and make a pick as to which is my favorite. I’m going to skip over some of the smaller movies that pretty much no one has heard of, but I’ll try to go pretty in depth.

More D&D

I recently posted about how much fun playing pen and paper RPGs are.

I wanted to give you the links to Ain’t It Cool News’ D&D 4th edition hands-on preview. See below:

D&D 4th edition hands-on with the Players’ Handbook

D&D 4th edition hands-on with the Dungeon Masters’ Guide

D&D 4th edition hands-on with the Monster Manual

The hands-on made me reminisce about my past experience, but I’m not sure about the quality of the 4th edition. The simplistic but capable rules sound pretty good. But in the third part, he starts talking about how maps and miniatures are pretty much necessary in order to play the game. That’s pretty weak in my opinion.

The Brothers Solomon

I just rented The Brothers Solomon last night. The trailer looked funny, but I was a little timid due to the poor reviews and Netflix’s guess at what I would rate it.

The movie starts off on an interesting premise. Two upbeat but inept brothers are forced into trying to have baby to make their dad snap out of a coma. Pretty far fetched, but that is the kind of comedy this is.

The beginning of the movie is a bit rough. The opening title sequence and title song are terrible. I’m normally really patient with movies, but this title sequence made me either fast forward or turn the movie off completely. After the titles, they kept that same annoying title song going during the introduction to the two brothers. At this point I’m wondering, “What have I gotten myself into?” Thankfully, after the introduction of the brothers, the movie drops the annoying song. Things only get better from there.

Snik-Snik

If you are interested, here’s a bunch of pictures off the set of the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie.

I remember the first time this movie came out and it was called Kate and Leopold. No? That’s just another Hugh Jackman and Liev Schrieber movie, you say?

Meh. The whole Wolverine origin story has been done to death. I mean, that’s pretty much all X-Men 2 was about, wasn’t it?

I just don’t see this movie bringing much to the table (it is supposed to have Gambit in it, though). I guess we will wait and see how it turns out.