dragons of the dwarven depths

it is recommended that before you read the lost chronicles trilogy. you must finish reading the chronicles trilogy first. why? because the lost chronicles is about the adventures that happened during the chronicles trilogy but were intentionally left out (i heard as to make more money) but perhaps its a good thing that our favorite companions continue to have "new" adventures way after their lifetimes. ::sob:: ils me manquent bien ... ::sob:: tome 1 dragons of the dwarven depths is about how the companions obtained the hammer of kharas. a gift from the gods of light by which the inhabitants krynn will able to forge the mythical dragonlances. also it showcases the kingdom of the mountain dwarves thorbadin and the different clans of dwarved who dwell in it. my favorite part is when caramon drew a heart on the tunnel wall with tika's name inside. cute cute ^_^ (sigh) the highseekers who continues to be a burden to the companions and the refugees remind me very much of baptists or filipino politicians who charms their way in to the hearts of the mob whispering sweet words but with little or no substance.

rating 2 out of 5 .. for a book that has the word depth on the title, i find it lacked depth .. however i did want to make special mention of the artwork on the cover. its nice!

I Am Legend

imdb page

I Am Legend is a movie adaptation of Richard Matheson's novelette of the same name. A mysterious virus outbreak has turned all the inhabitants of New York City into degenerate beast-like creatures. Apparently, there are only two survivors: Will Smith's character, who appears to be immune to the virus, and his pet dog who serves as his loyal companion and best friend.

The start of the movie is pretty good. A scientist/doctor played by Emma Thompson appears on a TV news interview with what appears to be a cure for Cancer. The scene then shifts to several years later. New York is deserted and in ruins. An unforeseen disaster of apocalyptic proportions has occurred.

As a fan of the post-apocalyptic movie genre, I was looking forward to this film. But at the same time, very apprehensive as it had all the makings of another disappointing Will Smith sci-fi film in the mold of I, Robot.

While not as bad as I, Robot, this unfortunately didn't turn out well. The human/beast infected creatures didn't look real. They were very CGI-ish. I also got very impatient with the pacing, it felt like everything was moving so slowly and I wanted them to hurry it up.

I also found myself in disbelief at some of the decisions that Will Smith's character made in the movie. I found myself questioning many of his actions, especially in the later parts and the ending. This is one of the movies where I felt many of the situations were contrived.

The only saving grace here is Will Smith's relationship with his dog. It was both very touching and real. These were the only good parts of the movie.

I haven't read the original novelette, but based on what I gathered from those who are familiar with it, this film deviated from much of the original story. And I think it missed on a lot of the main points that the story wanted to impart, replacing it with more action sequences (just like I, Robot).

The sad thing is that I Am Legend hit it big in the box office, which only encourages Hollywood to follow the same formula, which will result in more bad movies like this to be made in the future.

Rating: 2/5 * *
Another Will Smith sci-fi fiasco.

Braveheart

imdb page

I consider Braveheart to be the precursor to modern era epic battle movies such as Gladiator, Troy, Alexander, and Lord of the Rings. It was filmed and shown before CGI, or computer-generated imagery became common in movie production.

Due to this, I had tempered my expectations for this film, as I knew the battle scenes were developed without the aid of computers or graphics. Whatever limitations it would have in terms of special effects, I expect it to be made up by a much better story and character development. But it ultimately let me down.

Mel Gibson stars and directs in this movie, which in 1996, won Best Picture and a Best Director award for Gibson. I guess it must have been a very weak year for movies at the time, as I don't get how this won. It's mildly entertaining, and at times even fun to watch, but horribly overrated.

Gibson portrays William Wallace, a thirteenth century Scottish bandit/rebel who fights to free his people from the evil English. This is the film's fatal flaw as I don't find Mel Gibson at all convincing in this role. Wallace is supposed to be this fearsome brute of a man, savage and courageous at the same time. And I just never see these qualities in his acting.

Another complaint of mine is how this movie appears to advertise itself as being based on historical events, yet is terribly inaccurate. I understand that the storytelling needs to be exaggerated and some new parts made up to add entertainment value. But in this case, Braveheart went too far off course.

Even while watching this, I couldn't believe how saintly Wallace was portrayed, I'm pretty sure the real-life figure wasn't at all like this. I'm not even sure if his wife existed, or if the Scots were the good guys, or if King Edward Longshanks was that ruthless. Once you start to doubt whether these events actually happened or not, that's when things start slipping.

Despite these complaints, I confess I found it entertaining at times. Particularly all the scenes with King Edward (Longshanks). I enjoyed the tough guy, kick-ass King character. You can feel his power and ruthlessness. To illustrate just how bad ass this elderly king is, in one of the scenes, he throws his son's male lover out a tower window, and effortlessly beats up his son when he tries to fight back.

The battle scenes were ok but lacked emotion. At times it felt like these were actors going through the motions of fighting. There were also some moments which felt too contrived, such as when the Irish and Scots changed sides. The ending where Wallace seemed to get the upperhand of the King even in defeat was just too precious and made me groan out loud.

This would have been a pretty good lighthearted action flick. It just took itself too seriously.

Rating: 2/5 * *
Overrated Best Picture

Without Warning

'Without Warning' imdb page

I remember back in the 90’s when my father woke me up to tell me that there was this important live news story breaking out. It turned out to be an HBO movie that was pretending to be a real news broadcast. He was in on the joke of course but wanted to see whether I would believe it.

I came in right near the end, having missed most of the breaking ‘news’. I remember thinking to myself ‘wow’ after seeing the ending. At the time I also thought the production values were very good, it looked exactly liked real news a la CNN.

Unfortunately, I could tell right away that it was fake, having recognized the actress playing the news anchor, Jane Kaczmarek, who would later on play Malcolm in the Middle’s sitcom mom. But I didn’t want to ruin the fun, so I played along, making believe it was real.

Fast-forward more than a decade later. I was finally able to watch the movie in its entirety after getting it on DVD. The production values did not look as good, the ‘news’ didn’t look authentic at all, and I even chuckled at some of the bad acting by the reporters and fake witnesses. Worst acting goes to the bar customers, the SETI scientist, and the lead roving reporter.

Now, it could be that the producers were deliberately trying to make the acting bad, just to make sure that no one would actually believe that this was a live broadcast. My analysis is that this could have looked real ten years ago, but watching it again, it looks very dated. Believe it or not, from reading the imdb messageboards, it appears that there are still a lot of people who mistake this fake broadcast to be real. What the?!

The only gem in this one was Jane Kaczmarek’s portrayal of the fake news anchor. She seemed very real, just the way I would expect an anchor to react if these events were actually happening. I found the other anchor to be very unrealistic, despite him being an actual news guy hired to play a fake role. OK, you’ve got what appears to be an alien encounter, an entire town disappearing, and potentially the end of the world, and he reports it like it is just any other news story. Plus his line at the end just felt stupid.

All in all, I still enjoyed it! It reminds me of what is called a ‘shoot angle’ in wrestling, wherein the participants pretend that what is happening is not part of the script, and real life blurs into the storylines (if you’re a dedicated wrestling fan, you’ll know what I mean).

Without Warning is flawed, silly, overacted, and deserves the low rating it gets. But it’s one of the bad movies I liked a lot. I can’t wait for the day where I play this movie in a party, and make believe to the other people that it’s real, pretending to watch while mumbling to myself "Holy..!”, “Shit, what happened?”, and “Oh my God, the aliens are here!”.

Rating: 2/5 * *
What if it actually happened though?

Sicko

Sicko is Michael Moore's latest documentary following his previous successes, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. In this one, he focuses on the problems of America's health care industry and what must be done to fix it.

In a nutshell, here are the main points made in the film:
- American's health care system is broken.
- Health care should be universal and free.
- Steps should be made to fix the system.

I tend to agree with all these points and glad that Moore produced his usual entertaining and educational fare to address these. It always seemed to me to be common sense that medical care that can fix illnesses and save lives should not have a price tag associated with it. And the fact that uninsured elderly, or even young people would go broke or lose their life savings after getting seriously sick means that something is wrong with the system. This became a personal issue for me recently after seeing my parents, as well as parents of friends get sick and not having any insurance or enough savings to cover for it. Michael Moore just points out what should be common sense, that there should be no price tag with saving lives and getting well.

I thought the best idea from the movie came from one thing the British doctor said in passing - that he gets incentives and bonuses if he is able to convince his patients to lower their blood pressure, or quit smoking, or do other preventive measures to improve their health. It was such a fine thought that probably won't get as much attention as the other more controversial parts in this film, but it is worth repeating: that there should be incentives on promoting good health and preventing future illnesses, rather than on fixing bad stuff after it occurs. If you ask me, the medical industry is too focused on "fix-its": fixing problems after they already occur. Perhaps because there is more money on curing ill patients, rather than making sure they improve their health so they don't get sick in the first place. I've got a lot more to rant about regarding this subject matter which I'll cover in a future post on the coffeefriday blog.

While I thought this documentary was a step in the right direction, and hopefully an instrument for reform, there were just too much social propaganda here masquerading as facts. I understand that Moore may want to exaggerate certain material to make a point, but I think he goes a bit too far in this one. For instance, he puts the health care systems of Canada, UK, and France on top of a pedestal and uses them as Utopian examples the way things should be. But he gives very little lip service to the negatives of their system. You get the impression that these countries have high quality health care that is totally free. It sounds too good to be true. The reality is that nothing is free and that everything has a cost. The cost is in higher taxes, longer waiting times, lower quality. To be fair, Moore does mention and refute these points in the movie, but gives so devotes so little time to the arguments against them, that it just felt like he was dictating to me what to think rather than letting me make my own judgment.

The part where he led the batch of 9/11 rescue workers on a boat trip to Guantanamo Bay, and later to Cuba turned me off. This was where I felt the movie stopped being a documentary and started becoming a work of fiction, or more of an opinion piece. While I acknowledge that this scene might have been staged to make a point about the broken nature of U.S. Health Care, it just got a bit too sensationalist for my tastes. The Cuba scenes portrayed the rescue workers as victims who were unable to help themselves, which does a big disservice to them as it reinforces their belief that they are victims who can only be helped by the government.

By the second half of the film, the rest of the moviegoers at the cinema I was in seemed to be totally brainwashed by everything they saw, judging from their reactions and sounds of agreement. There was loud applause at the end. While I felt initially that this was a good sign, that this would at least motivate people to make efforts to change the system, I was also a bit scared at how easily one could be misled by some of the one-sided arguments in Sicko.

So to summarize, I liked this movie, I'm glad it was made, and I think it will have a positive effect in making people think. Unfortunately I predict that it will influence people for the wrong reasons, leading us to think that free health care comes without any cost. I just wish it could have portrayed both sides of the argument (and if it comes a little biased towards Moore's side, that's ok), then let people make the decisions for themselves rather than dictating what they should think. On the positive side, there were a couple of gems in Sicko that were buried under the more sensationalist scenes, it's just too bad these ideas were not emphasized more:

- Life-saving medical care should be universal and free (even at the cost of higher taxes)
- More emphasis should be made on preventive medicine and health improvement, so people will need less medical care in the future.
- The medical industry needs to be less incentivized towards money.

Rating: 2/5 * *
Good intentions, but too one-sided in its message.

Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me

(Update: OK, maybe I was too hard on this CD. Been listening to it again, 'Wind it Up' sounds better and better the more you listen to it. It has that edge, especially after reading the lyrics and watching the video. Wind it Up will end up as one of this year's best songs. -rob)


Also known as BLAM, 'Barenaked Ladies Are Me' is BNL's latest release. Now I had extremely high expectations with this one, as I do with all new Barenaked Ladies albums. These guys write some of the most creative, kickass songs I've ever heard. And I could always relate past significant events and emotions with some Barenaked Ladies or CAKE song. I was expecting to be blown away with this one, like all their past albums.

Alas, it didn't happen. I went through it once, thought it sounded nice, but nothing really remarkable, then stashed it away. Waited a few weeks, then listened to it again thinking I might have some new insight to the songs that didn't occur to me before (as was the case with their album 'Maroon'). Still no change, it was just an unremarkable album, nothing special.

I'm not discounting the fact that a year or two from now, I'll pick it up again and "get it". But I don't expect that to happen. Here's why, this CD seems to lack a certain edginess, that punch, that intensity that was present in their previous work. I'm guessing the band has matured to the point where things are good, everyone is content, life is comfortable, and it reflects in their music. There's still a bit of that quirky lyrics and hidden meanings, but much less than before.

Another possible reason for easy-going nature of this album is that the band is now producing their own work. So they have full creative control over the music process. This can be good or bad depending on how it goes. It's good because we get to hear the original unblemished songs that the band intended us to listen to. But it can also be a disadvantage because you lack that creative input from the record label that has a feel of what sells and what doesn't. I'm not usually a fan of the record industry, as evidenced by all the flat, prefabricated music being played today on the radio. But there is probably some positive effect with having some constructive feedback from the label on what works and what doesn't. With BLAM, the band has all grown up and is learning to be on its own without adult supervision.

Due to this, I'm confident that the Ladies will learn from their mistakes and create a more meaningful, intense batch of songs the next time around. This was just a rare off-day.

We also learned here that Steven Page and Ed Robertson, the two frontmen are still the best songwriters and singers. The CD features a couple of other songs written and sometimes sung by Jim Creeggan (bass guy) and Kevin Hearn (keyboards, multi-instrument guy). Not that their songs were bad, I guess they were ok, just not my type. And maybe an acquired folk taste is necessary to appreciate them.

Two songs are passably good here: 'Bank Job', a song about a botched bank robbery, and my personal favorite 'Wind It Up', a country-type song with its catchy "wind it up" chorus. The rest aren't particularly memorable. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than most of the music out there, but I expect more from one of my all-time favorite bands, Barenaked Ladies.

Rating: 2/5 * *
A little uninspired, lacks emotion.

the king of torts - john grisham

clay carter was a long time public defender who wasnt happy with his job. there was little money too little life and too much work. his long time girlfriend rebecca van horn, who works for the government, was thinking of breaking up with him, unless he gives in to the wishes of her parents. they want him to go corporate. where the money is. they dont like clay. they dont take kindly to people who dont have fortunes to spend. they hate clay and vice versa. rebecca and clay eventually broke up. much to the pressure of her parents.

one day, he was approached by french (french is a first name) who convinced him to file a mass tort case against a drug company which distributed some bad drug. the drug had a side effect of making a person who took it to commit homicide. it didnt matter when or who.

the key to making the money was to have the families of the homicide victims to settle (to keep their mouth shut). the drug company would pay them hundreds of millions. which will include the lawyer's fees.

the story now turns into a roller coaster of money making at the expense of drug companies which made mistakes. these companies are forced to settle. they pay huge huge amounts of money to settle. little of it trickle to the claimants who took their bad drug. a lot of it goes to the mass tort lawyer. the newspapers had by now picked up his scent. of having acquired enormous amounts of wealth at a short span of time. they dubbed him the "the king of torts". suddenly, he had tons of friends. assets. one very pretty model. and made enemies as well.

i would stop here as i think you too probably already know whats about to happen next ...

rating - 2 out of 5 **
too predictable

Scary Movie 4

Scary Movie 4 spoofs and satirizes War of the Worlds, Saw 2, The Grudge, Million Dollar Baby, The Village, and numerous other films. I didn't have high expectations for this one and I left the moviehouse thinking I had wasted my time.

OK, I haven't seen War of the Worlds so I couldn't relate to any of the jokes regarding it, which was a major part of the film. I'm a big M. Night Shyamalan fan so I was pleased that they decided to spoof The Village. The jokes regarding The Grudge was kinda lame, I only found the japanese real estate agent funny. The Saw 2 jokes were unfunny. I actually laughed at the Million Dollar Baby ring scenes.

The presence of Anna Faris was probably the only one thing made this movie marginally worth watching? Beautiful, funny, and silly at the same time.

The ending? It was ridiculous. Yes I know it isn't supposed to make sense, that I shouldn't take this movie too seriously. Yet it was even more ridiculous than I thought, carelessly made ending that wasn't funny.

Rating: 2/5 * *
Not funny enough.

The Constant Gardener

Note: May contain a few minor spoilers, but this should not detract from your viewing enjoyment. I believe these were revealed in the original movie trailer anyway.


The Constant Gardener is part mystery, part current events, part social agenda. The opening sequence is pretty good. It shows flashbacks of Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, how they met and got married, how Fiennes job as a diplomat got them assigned to the British consulate in Africa, and how distant they can be to one another, yet maintain that level of respect.

Weisz is extremely dedicated to social work and is determined to do as much as she can to help the poor and suffering people in the region they are in. Sometimes it is as if she is merely using her husband to further her own social agenda. The movie skips ahead occasionally and shows us glimpses of the present. Rachel Weisz' character is found raped, murdered, and mutilated. The scene at the morgue where Fiennes identifies his wife's mutilated body is quite shocking as we are jolted with the horror and reality of death. The question is, who were the perpetrator(s), was it random bandit violence or did someone order the hit? This is where the actual movie starts as Fiennes unravels the circumstances behind his wife's death.

The fact that Weisz hasn't been telling her husband what her true motives and which activities she has been involved in the past few months make the investigation more difficult. We are left with plenty of scenes that illustrate just how difficult life is in Africa. There is poverty, corruption, hunger, thuggery and all sorts of negative aspects. There are also the aid workers who dedicate their lives to helping out the people.

Feinnes and Weisz make a weird couple. They are said to be in love with each other, yet they appear to be very distant to each other emotionally. I also find that Rachel Weisz' character in the movie has a lack of respect for her husband. She never tells him what she's doing, seems to be always at odds with anything he does, and even berates him in one scene for using pesticide in their garden. Feinnes is a saint, a martyr husband who has no idea what his wife is doing and sometimes doesn't seem to care. Due to this, I find the final events of the movie extremely hard to believe and unrealistic, given the nature of the couple.

This movie is well made and manages to entertain despite the grim subject matter. But I think it is limited by the plot of the original novel. One thing I didn't like was that it felt like it had a social agenda. For instance, all the good guys as well as all the bad guys were westerners (British). It felt like the African people were pawns easily manipulated by the big bad corporations, and that the west was responsible for their hardships when the fact is, it is the corrupt governments and officials that is mostly to blame for abusing and terrorizing their own people. It was this buildup of the gradual condascending attitude that made me dislike this movie. And by the way I didn't like the ending, not because it was bad but because it was dumb.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is well made. But I hated the message and the way it portrayed the victims in the story as powerless and unable to fight back. This may be the current reality but when I watch movies such as this that have an obvious social agenda, I want some solutions rather than just being given more problems.

Rating: 2/5 * *
Well made but misguided.

kampanerang kuba

[english] one if not the hottest actress in the philippines today - the humpback bell ringer. it seems like there is a resurgence of interest towards true halfbreeds. not a few years has passed, we observe a decline especially since the advent of korean and japanese tv shows and music. i told myself once. this is it! the reign of mestizas is over. since anybody can feign hair and even skin color which in the beginning were sole trademarks. what made it so special was it was so rare. anne curtis is akin to mestiza actresses like susan roces, nida blanca, and rosa rosal. until i saw how hot she was in an episode (every night at channel 2) of the humpback bell ringer. (i might have sounded like a pedo hehehe but i truly admire her from a different standpoint). my cable was disconnected. i was late in payment. i am left with channel 2, 7, televised radio program - radio ng bayan, and thank the universe for channel 23. there are two things which i hate about the show. (1) i dont see how the catholic church got involved. it seemed like there is an agenda behind it. and there is. its instant promotion of the religion (2) the kids who mostly comprise the audience are taught to judge by appearance rather than by merit. this show teaches how to be shallow. reinforcing the wrong habit. how we interact with people has got something to do wether or not they are good looking.

Rating: 2 of 5 **
Anne Curtis is hot ..

Blade Runner

I watched the theatrical version of this film as opposed to the Director's Cut, which I heard more people prefer over the original. The Director's Cut reportedly did away with the narration (which I thought was a good touch), and had a darker, more ominous ending. A friend with good taste in movies once told me he considered this one of the most important sci-fi movies ever made." So I couldn't wait to check it out for myself.

The movie has a dark, futuristic, Terminator-like feel to it. It's set in Los Angeles in the year 2029 or close to that. The streets are dirty, crowded, with brightly-lit billboards and flying vehicles. The story revolves around the presence of 'Replicants', or advanced human-like androids that exist way past their lifespan. The unusual thing about these Replicants are that they are given false human memories to make them think and act like the part more effectively. Harrison Ford is a 'Blade Runner', a cop whose function is to terminate wayward Replicants. The movie raises many ethical questions: What defines being human? How moral is it to terminate non-living beings who act and feel human?

Sounds very interesting on paper, but frankly this movie failed to capture my imagination. I felt like a lot of the scenes were moving in slow motion, I got impatient all throughout the film waiting for the plot to progress. This is the type of movie that would have been fun to watch when it was first released in the early 80's, but it feels dated and tired. Maybe it's just me.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Slow and shows its age.

Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet was directed by David Lynch, who was also the director of one of my all-time favorite movies, Mulholland Drive.

Unfortunately I was bored and disappointed with this one. It's about a college student investigating a detached ear found in an empty lawn. It's set in the quiet suburb of Lumbertown, where the people are friendly, and nothing ever happens. But looks can be deceiving. As we go through the story you find that beneath the surface there lurks evil, perversion, and depravity. We get a nude and simulated sex scene with the attractive Isabella Rosellini, and some tense moments with the main bad guy, Dennis Hopper.

As is the trademark of Lynch, we get hidden meanings and funny colors suggesting dream sequences. Unlike Mulholland Drive, I wasn't that interested in any of them. I just never got into this film. It was unimaginative and dull. Not worth the time to watch.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Boring.

Close Your Eyes

This was advertised as a 'suspence thriller', 'a cross between Silence of the Lambs and Scanners' but frankly, I was let down. I had expected more from this british film.

It starts out interestingly enough, a hypnotist is hired by a lady cop to help them catch a serial killer who had abducted a little girl, then let her go for no reason. The traumatized girl has become a mute and has not spoken a word since the incident. So our hero applies hypnosis to get information from her.

I found the hypnotist's wife mildly irritating everytime she blamed him for getting them involved in the case. As if the guy doesn't have enough problems already. The character of the serial killer was alright, but for some reason, didn't scare me (I think by this time, every suspense/horror film I've seen after Audition seem tame by comparison.) Also, they could have explained the ending better for slow folks such as myself who don't understand the complicated stuff.

This is ok, not great. Not scary either.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Just wait for this to be shown on TV.

War of the Worlds

la guerre des mondes is a hollywood film inspired by a novel written by Herbert George Wells of the same name. in this interpretation however, the politics of the invasion (which had made the original story) takes a backseat, and focuses more on the fathers relationship with his son and daughter.

ray ferrier (tom cruise) has joint custody of his children, rachel (dakota fanning) and robbie (justin chatwin). he lives like a bachelor which inferences how his relationship with the mary ann the mother (miranda otto) ended. the movie starts with an ordinary weekend when mary ann drops off the kids.

why cant the film just settle for plain organisms and planet toxicity. why introduce god? to blaspheme no less than the author himself HG Wells who is a reknowned atheist. better yet. buy the book and read the real story.

there have been numerous works inspired by this story and it would be great to speculate how filipinoes would react to the invasion.

the special effects (sounds and graphics) were superb and expected from a hollywood film.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars **
for special effects

Collateral

This movie had a lot of promise. What I found most interesting was Jamie Foxx's character, which was very realistic and believable. My favorite part was the initial scene where Foxx has the conversation with the lady lawyer over the best route. Good way to start the movie and makes you sympathetic for the cab driver right away.

However, it all goes downhill from there. My main problem is I didn't find the whole story believable. Foxx could have escaped several times, yet went along willingly too many times. He did try to get away but was foiled by circumstances I felt were too contrived. The ongoing dialogue between Cruise and Foxx were reputed to be the best parts of the film (and why I wanted to watch it in the first place), but it let me down. I only found it remotely interesting.

The whole plot for me falls apart and I couldn't get past thinking how unbelievable the whole situation was. For example, why doesn't the hitman just kill the driver, or why doesn't the driver get help while in the hospital. After the scene with the cops in the club, I just stopped believing the movie altogether. I didn't find Cruise's character convincing too, it seemed very one dimensional.

One saving grace is the conversation in the jazz bar. They should have made that scene longer.

All in all, a very ordinary movie which let me down.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Needs a better script.

28 Days Later

I heard good things about this movie, it was supposed to be frightening, had several alternate endings, and was the british take on your traditional zombie flick. So yes, I was excited to buy the DVD and watch it.

This could have been good. It started interestingly enough, with your lead character waking up to discover himself in downtown London overtaken by flesh-eating zombies. Lots of violence, running around, and occasional glimpses of news reports that suggest the total collapse of society. You gain sympathy for the father and daughter characters and desperately want them to escape. The events and people seem genuine. So far so good.

Unfortunately it goes downhill fast. Without spoiling the plot, there is a senseless death in the middle that felt very soap opera-ish and insulted my intelligence. The part with the soldiers starts alright and for a second I thought we would be able to salvage this film. But it was at this part where the story takes an incredibly unrealistic turn which blew it for me. Don't get me wrong, the battle and action scenes are fine, but they ruined the movie with this so-called plot turn. The actions of the soldiers along with Jim's (the hero) actions near the end are just totally unbelievable. The alternate script and endings available in the DVD are just as bad. I guess they ran out of ideas.

Shucks, this could have been a winner.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Zombies 1, Humans 0

Swimming Pool

This was advertised as a 'psychological thriller' and got a lot of good reviews from respected critics. It also seemed to be the type of film I might like so I got the DVD to see if it was any good.

The plot revolves a popular british mystery author who is sick and tired of writing the same formula over and over again. So she decides to go for a vacation at her publisher's house in France. Everything goes well until the publisher's sexually promiscuous daughter unexpectedly drops by, destroying her peace and quiet. Lots of weird stuff happens and there is a plot twist that takes place in the end.

Ludivine Sagnier is hot in this movie. She has several barechested scenes and a couple of simulated sex acts to break the monotony. Her character was the one who drove the story, and is the main selling point.

The ambience of the movie is very subdued and laid-back. To appreciate this, you have to relate to the mindset of the heroine, her sense of isolation and lack of inspiration. It is her feeling of desperation that leads her to escape familiar surroundings for a different kind of world.

I really wanted to like this, but alas it is just an ordinary film. Nothing really special takes place. Even the ending twist, I found underwhelming. The story and character development is quite limited. Nothing special.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
She has nice breasts though.

Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water

OK, I don't remember exactly why I bought this CD. I think I was in an angry mood or something, and I saw on MTV that Fred Durst was pissed off at something. Plus, I remember liking 'My Way' before when I heard it on the radio.

The songs are good to listen to while writing code. I bet they would be good workout music too, especially when doing pushups or lifting weights. Lots and lots of profanity here, it is one of the selling points of the album.

The good tracks here are essentially the ones you heard on the airwaves: 'My Generation', 'My Way', 'Rollin', and 'Take a Look Around' (from Mission Impossible). I'll let you in on a secret. My personal favorite and most underrated song on the album is 'Full Nelson', check it out.

This CD can be fun, but it has to match your mood. Tough to rate.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars * *
Listen to 'Full Nelson', and if you like the track, buy the CD.

Shrek 2

I went to watch Shrek 2 on the big screen with some co-workers who were huge Shrek fans. The story follows the events of the original Shrek. Shrek is now happily living together with Princess Fiona in her Ogress form. They venture off to visit the princess' parents. On the way there they team up with a cat named 'Puss in Boots' voiced by Antonio Banderas.

The bad guys here are the Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming who desires to become king. Like the original, all roles in popular fairy tales are reversed. The Ogre and Dragon are good, the Fairy Godmother and Prince are bad.

Artwork and animation is very good. I particularly like the graphics effects in the scene when Shrek and the Princess made their journey to Far Far Away Land. It was also cool to see what Shrek would look like in human form.

This is an average movie. I just don't understand what most people enjoy about it. A lot of the scenes were just pure corn. Don't get me wrong, the film is very nicely made, and there are a few good spots. It just feels that the characters and voices are trying too hard to be funny. Whatever this movie is good in, I just don't get it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars **
Watch this for the graphics and artwork, but don't expect much more.