This is the picture I attempted to post a few weeks ago. This is an actual 7-story aquarium somewhere over in Tai Pei. Apartment tenants can glance out their windows and see the gigantic fish just swimming around in there, free as can be. (Well, as free as you can be, trapped inside an aquarium for life…)

I’m not a huge aquarium fan, but I can honestly say I’d be pretty interested in seeing this some day. And that’s saying a lot, because I basically don’t want to go ANYWHERE. (Just ask my wife… or my parents…)

Kevin

The photo thing figured out, that is. Not a sense of dignity… I
mean, who needs DIGNITY, right? You can get that on the street
corner… at least, you can in Edmond… every street corner… Yep.
It’s true… You can buy Integrity, too, if you’re persistent enough…

Kevin

The Hook: An everyday woman gets kidnapped from her home, reason unknown. She manages to get a smashed phone to work and randomly calls some kid on his cell phone. Said kid runs around L.A. trying to prevent bad things happening to her kid, husband, etc. Bottom line hook: it all takes place over a matter of hours.

The Score: B-

The Conclusion: Pretty good cinematography, with the appropriate zooms, angles, etc. Standard action-thriller stuff. The kid (whatever his name was) was an impressive actor. Kim Bassinger kind of seemed to be… ah… phoning it in… (no pun intended). She just seemed to be overly whiny and crying all the time… maybe that’s her character, when people get kidnapped… I dunno…

Mixed feelings, overall, but it wasn’t a bad movie. Certainly worth the whopping fifty cents I spent on it… decent writing, with just about any cell phone problem you can conceive of getting stuffed into the script. Not bad, though…

I saw this in the latest issue of Wired, and though it looked pretty
cool.

The Hook: A futuristic setting where emotion is suppressed in an effort
to eliminate extremes of emotion. Or in layman’s terms, keeping the
equilibrium…

The Score: B+

The Thoughts:

This one took me off guard. I knew Christian Bale was an excellent
actor, but I didn’t expect a dramatic tale of morality to be so
incredibly well-directed, much less chock-full of breathtaking action
sequences. The “gun kata” was nothing short of astounding, and I can
readily understand why Bale was chosen to helm “Batman Begins” next
summer. Although the movie lags at time, and has a few minor plot
points, overall it’s an exhausting yet enjoyable movie that I wouldn’t
mind seeing again, or possibly owning. I’m not sure, but I think I may
have even liked it more than “The Matrix” (and without a doubt more
than the Matrix crapquels…

The Hook: Two people stranded in the ocean after snorkeling. Sharks swimming around. The whole thing takes place in a twenty-four hour time period.

The Score: C+

The Thoughts:

While the actress & actor made a good team, with occasional highlights of genuine talent, it’s understandably difficult to carry a movie when you’re adlibbing most of it and it’s just the two of you. In the water. Thus, you’ve got little to work with in the way of conveying emotions except your face and over-the-water gestures. Plus, when you’re in the water, stranded, your emotions are pretty much limited to anger, depression and despair – all three of which were played to perfection.

Take your Dramamine. Filmed on an independent budget with cheap cameras, the shaking and swaying and dipping is enough to make even the most steel-lined stomach ralph. (Note: if you have a semi-sick college student named Nate with you during this movie, know it’s a bad idea to bring him. He’ll only get sicker as the movie progresses…)

It was pretty straight-forward, simple story-telling, but as a result of the simplicity it was kinda boring. Really boring. More of a character study than an entertaining movie, to be honest. Still, I was surprised at the ending, and actually dropped my jaw at what happened out of shock. So there’s something to be said for surprising a jaded moviegoer who’s seen or read it all. (Or maybe I just have a short memory, so I’m constantly suprised… again and again… it’s like every day is Groundhog Day… I’m constantly suprised… again and again… it’s like every day is Groundhog Day… )

Overall, I’m just glad I paid a buck for it, instead of shelling out for full price.