Just Lindsay's Luck

There was a movie that I've wanted to see for a while now, but I never thought there would be an opportunity for me to watch it. The movie is called Just My Luck starring the ever popular and doped up queen of bulimia, Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay plays Ashley, the luckiest woman on the planet, that is until she meets the unluckiest man, Jake. They kiss on the dance floor and swap more than just spit; they swap luck. Now Jake who was unsuccessfully trying to get a record producer to listen to the band he represents, immediately makes them superstars. All the while Ashley finds herself living with her friends and eating scraps off other people’s plates.

My friend Kim was taking the movie home and I commented that I wanted to see it. She asked if I wanted to borrow it and I of course said yes. The movie was charming and I enjoyed it, however it was extremely formulaic. Formulaic in the sense that it borrows aspects from a thousand different formulaic movies. It had a little, Freaky Friday, Spiceworld and then your generic romantic comedy.

My relationship with Lindsay Lohan is interesting. It wasn't until I saw her host the 2004 MTV Movie Awards that I began liking her. I continued to enjoy Lindsay in Mean Girls, after which her stock plummeted when she became a causality of her own fame. The drugs, the drama, the bulimia. The whole episode of her life was just too much for me to care about that I and everyone else immediately made her a punch line. Yet, even though she is trying to get her life back together, I still don't think she is going to live down her shenanigans.

The Ballad of Will Ferrell

We just finished watching Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby starring the incomparable Will Ferrell. Yes, it was funny, but not nearly as funny as I expected. I think as a whole, I was disappointed I didn't laugh until I cried. Something I tend to do.

First, let me talk about Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell has a spotty history of funniness with me. On Saturday Night Live, he was probably the funniest cast member of all time and then in 2002 he left to do films. To be frank, even while he was on SNL, his shenanigans on SNL movies were poor. Have you seen A Night at the Roxbury and Superstar? After leaving SNL in 2002, he started strong in Old School and Elf, two of the funniest movies I had ever seen. That's when things began going downhill.

Daily I come across people who think Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is hysterical. I didn't, I barely laughed throughout the entire movie, and maybe I just didn't get the joke. At that moment, my faith in Will Ferrell as a comedic actor waned. Would he ever be funny to me again? Where did his magic go?

My hopes were set high when I bought Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby when I saw the many previews. I laughed hysterically when he named his children Walker and Texas Ranger. I laughed when he begged Tom Cruise to do his magic. I even laughed when his father made him drive with a cougar in the car. By the time I actually saw the movie, the jokes weren't funny anymore. To my surprise, those were the funniest moments in the movie, and they used all of them in the previews. This is not new for movies, they have to use their best material to attract viewers, but at least leave something to surprise us.

We began watching the movie and then paused it 38 minutes in. Mom and I both silently thought to ourselves that it was the longest 38 minutes of our lives. I thought that if the first 38 minutes of the movie was this slow, I couldn't imagine what the last 90 minutes would feel like. I almost dreaded it. To my surprise, the movie got better, and Ricky Bobby miraculously got smarter.

For someone I thought was as dumb as a box of rocks, his reasoning and common sense were sharp. There were some conversations he had with his friend Carl that had me wondering if this was the same character. Then in the next scene, he would be this bumbling idiot; I just didn't really know what to think. It frustrated me that they didn't stay true to the character throughout the movie.

This is where it gets sad. The moment I laughed hardest wasn't in the movie at all, but in the gag reel. It wasn't the gag that was funny but the line, "pale and paralyzed" that had me laughing so hard. Maybe if they kept that line in the movie, I would have walked away with a better feeling. Overall, it was a good movie. It definitely had its moments, and most importantly, I got the joke and was entertained. That's all I could really ask for.

Geeked Out

For a couple of weeks, I've been consumed with taking all my DVDs and ripping the disc image to a hard drive. To clarify, by ripping the disc image, I would be putting an exact replica of the DVD onto the hard drive. Naturally, this idea is just a piece of a much larger and complex puzzle, because there are many different factors that go into accomplishing this.

The idea goes far beyond just putting DVDs on a hard drive. Ultimately I want to access them or any of my data from anywhere in the world. When you look at it that way, you can see the logistical nightmare this could entail. That is a focus for another day and likely another generation of hardware. For now, I'm willing to settle for anywhere in the house.

To begin, I will require a new computer. The computer is the most essential part of the process; it acts as the foundation, and dictates future expansion possibilities. If I choose the wrong platform, I could be shutting myself down even before I begin. The question is Windows or OSX. The both have their strengths and they both have their weaknesses.

The major downside for Windows is I will have to buy a computer from a manufacturer who will fill it with a bunch of useless trial programs (AOL, Napster, etc.) that, in the end, screws up the entire system when you try to uninstall them. Also, Windows tends to have many cool features that never actually work as their intended, or at all. However, Microsoft has a clear vision that is in line with my own, so it seems only natural to go with them.

The trouble with Apple is I don't see their vision. It seems only recently that they are trying to enter into the living room with their AppleTV. A great concept, but certainly not on par with what Microsoft is doing with Vista and Media PC. In addition, Mac hardware is more expensive, Mac memory is outrageously expensive and their software is not up to the task. However, the stability of the OSX platform is outstanding, while it wouldn't be easy or cheap, there would be as sense of confidence that everything would work as it should.

Beyond the purchase of a computer, there is a small issue with hard drive space. I currently have 543 barcodes in my DVD collection. I say barcodes because there are collections of movies within a single barcode, like the seven Superman movies in the Ultimate Collectors Edition. Today, I went through my entire DVD collection updating how many discs each DVD had while filing DVDs that hadn't filed. After going through and counting all the individual DVDs, the total count came to 1,114 DVDs that would be ripped to a hard drive. This does not account for dual-sided DVDs, which would slightly raise that number.

Looking at the maximum capacity a DVD can hold (dual-layer: 8.5GB; single-layer: 4.7GB) and multiplying it by 1,114, I would need approximately 10TB of space. TB stands for terabyte, which is like a 1,000GB. This is assuming of course that every DVD I own is dual-layered and using all 8.5GB. I know this isn't true because the first disc of Superman Returns only uses 7.43GB and I'm positive I have single-layered DVDs in my collection.

The cost of one terabyte of storage is expensive, and then multiplying it by ten is ridiculously expensive. The least expensive solution is a $500 external hard drive from Western Digital, for one terabyte worth of space making the final total $5000. I get the distinct feeling that I'll have to wait 10 years before I can affordably accomplish this.

Other, cheaper solutions don't involve ripping anything to a hard drive. Sony makes a device that holds 200 DVDs and hooks up to a PC. I would only need six of these, and it's half the price at $400 a pop. The problem, it's not what I want, and it is not as versatile as having digital files. Until the next waves of computers come out with HD DVD and Blu-Ray drives in them, I won't know what I'm going to end up doing. It's all dependent on whether the hardware enables the software.

A Super Set

After a couple months of waiting, I finally picked up Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition. This 14-Disc collection includes these seven Superman movies:

01. Superman The Movie
02. Superman The Movie: 2000 Expanded Edition
03. Superman II
04. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
05. Superman III
06. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
07. Superman Returns

I was going to get it the week it was released, but the Target I go to never seemed to have one that wasn't damaged. Ultimately, I requested a rain check in hopes they would get one that wasn't all bent out of shape. So I waited and looked them over as the received them in and they were all damaged. So, I waited some more until they stopped replenishing the set. This was a huge disappointment because my rain check was for $69.99 and nowhere else had it at such a great price.

Recently I checked Amazon.com and saw they had the set for only $70.99, a reasonable price for sure. I batted around the idea of just buying it on Amazon; the problem with buying over the Internet is you don't know what kind of shape it will be in when it arrives. Since there are no Amazon stores around, exchanging it would be a nightmare.

A few days ago, I received some Best Buy coupons in the mail giving me 10% off any regular priced movie, music or video game purchase. I took the coupon to my local Best Buy store and found they had it in stock. They were offering it for $79.99 and so I picked it up. With my coupon, it would bring the final price down to, $71.99, $2 more than Target and $1 more than Amazon. That's reasonable, considering I can't get it at Target and Amazon is kind of a crapshoot.

It's nice to know that I have all the Superman movies in one convenient package. Better still, by buying this Ultimate Collector's Edition I saved a minimum of $70 over buying each of these movies and documentaries individually. That makes the wait and price worth it, plus this aluminum case will take up far less space on my shelf than each DVD case would.

New Years Eve Day

Yesterday started out fantastic as we made our weekly trip to Best Buy where they had a selection of TV on DVD boxed sets on sale. I picked up the complete series (3 seasons) of Chris Carter's Millennium, starring Lance Henrickson. I also bought the first season of Bones and the second season of Dead Like Me. Each of the sets cost a mere $19.99; a great price and one I couldn't pass up. However, I did see they were selling every season of the X-Files for $19.99 each, which to someone who paid more than twice and in some cases four times that price, made me a little sick.

Once we arrived back home from our shopping excursion, we had a little time to waste before going to my grandparent's house for a New Years Eve celebration. Mom made some French Toast from the bread I made, and we sat and watched Big Day, a show ABC seems to racing to end. From there, we went our separate ways and did our own thing.

Two o'clock came and we made our way to my grandparent's house. We talked about the trouble my Grandfather was having with this contraption they bought at Linen's and Things that allows you to burn you audio tapes and vinyl to CD. When we first heard about it on the day after Thanksgiving, we thought it would be an awesome way to preserve old media. As it turns out, after a solid week of decent results, the whole thing crapped out on them. Now there is some debate on whether they should just return it, or exchange it for another one.

Once we exhausted the subject of the L-n-T contraption, the subject changed to Pokémon and other games my Grandfather was playing. I then showed him the game I was currently playing, Elite Beat Agents. He thought it was a cool concept, and after showing him a quick demo of it, my Aunt and Samantha arrived. Almost immediately, the group divided and my Grandfather, Samantha and I went into another room to play video games, as the ladies sat at the table and did their thing.

We all congregated back to the dining room for food and conversation, then played Disney Trivial Pursuit. My mom and I are huge Disney fans and we know a lot about the parks, but when it comes to Disney movies, while we enjoy watching them, we aren't experts so playing these games is always difficult for us. Personally, I will watch a movie a dozen or so times and still not remember all the details that are required to play such a game. However, once I'm reminded, I can recall the section of the movie with immense clarity. This ability I have is useless in a game that requires you to know the movie to begin with.

After my Aunt, Grandmother and I wiped the floor with our opponents in a very close game, we moved on to a game I generally despise, Outburst! I am a highly competitive person and I hate the way I feel when I compete, so I make every effort to not compete in anything. Outburst! is one of those games that can split families apart, except this time it was better because I had already won in DTP so the feeling of competition subsided.

Once we finished the games and dessert, we all left and headed home. When Mom and I arrived home, we picked out Thank You for Smoking to watch. It is a hilarious movie about a spin-doctor for big tobacco. It's one of those movies, no matter how you feel about the subject of big tobacco, you find yourself rooting for the "bad guy". I highly recommend you see it if you have the chance.

The rest of my evening had me working on the blog for A God in Training and then I felt too sick from exhaustion and the massive amount of food I consumed to continue. So, I lied in bed and watched a little TV until I fell asleep.

Hello Down There

A great movie from the late 1960's, Hello Down There is a raucous comedy starring Tony Randall, Janet Leigh and featuring a young Richard Dreyfuss. Tony Randall plays the role of Fred Miller, an architect for an underwater development company; his wife Vivian (Janet Leigh) a novelist, and his two children, Lorrie and Tommy are band mates in a band called Harold and the Hang-ups led by Harold Webster (Richard Dreyfuss).

After a less than stellar visit with his boss to the underwater abode, Fred was ordered to tear the house down. Fighting to keep his dream alive, Fred convinced his boss to let him and his family live in the house for 30 days. What emerges is one of the best comedies of the '60s.

I saw it many years ago and it remained in my conscience in the years to follow as one of my favorite movies of the era. I looked for it on DVD but eventually gave up until my Mom found it on Amazon.com. She put it on her Christmas list. Even though I bought it for her, I did so selfishly because I wanted to see it again, on DVD, not the VHS tape was taped it on. If you ever get the chance to see the movie, do it because it's funny, has great music and watching Janet Leigh dance is one of the few joys in my life.

Pitch Riddick

Among other things yesterday I bought from Best Buy, Riddick Trilogy. The two disc set has The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury and The Chronicles of Riddick; all in one neat little package. I should preface this post by saying I am not a fan of Vin Diesel. I hate how he has this badass, action hero persona where he is a man of few words but a lot of force.

All that brings me to Pitch Black, a movie I rented a few years ago and hated. My impression of it now is the same as it was back then, it's nothing more than a glorified made for TV movie. The action is uninspired, the acting is ridiculous and over-the-top, the story was non-existent and the twists were predictable. One might wonder why I would even pick up this set if I hated the movie so much. That would be for Chronicles of Riddick.

Before I would be able to watch Chronicles of Riddick, I would have to sit through a 35-minute animated disaster called Dark Fury. Dark Fury is meant to bridge the story from Pitch Black to Chronicles of Riddick. It features the voice work of original cast members from Pitch Black and tied the stories nicely together, too bad it's practically unwatchable. The production feels rushed, the animation is choppy, and the voice work is terrible. I got the impression the actors didn't want to do this but with the impending release of Chronicles of Riddick, they knew they had to do something to explain what happened immediately following Pitch Black.

After sitting through two terrible movies, it was time to begin watching Chronicles of Riddick. When I first saw the previews, I wondering what Universal was thinking making Riddick a franchise character after such an abominable first movie. The previews looked impressive in scale, but I didn't understand how they were going to tie in the world of Pitch Black with what I was seeing on screen. Although I don't think they did a very good job of tying the two worlds together, Chronicles of Riddick was a much better movie.

Even though Vin Diesel brought back his robotic acting routine and Rhiana Griffith did not reprise her role as Jack, the movie actually had a story and the characters were interesting. I wished I had seen this movie before seeing the others because I might have walked away with a better impression of the franchise. Regardless, Chronicles of Riddick may not be on of my favorite movies, nor would I consider it a great movie, but it certainly has redeemed itself as an interesting sci-fi franchise.