Are you, er, watching Sarah Connor?

I got a chance to watch the first episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles this weekend. I have to say I'm impressed. They completely ignore T3 (Thank God!) and start their own timeline. The new Terminators are much more human in their actions, so they have a wider range of expression and therefore more possibilities exist for their characters. As much as I love Arnie as the T2 Terminator, you have to admit a season of his wooden robot mannerisms would have gotten old quick. Plus, Summer is easier on the eyes.

Leana Heady channels Linda Hamilton so well it's almost spooky. Her voice even has the same inflections as Hamilton's while doing the voice overs. Thomas Dekker is a fairly good John, and I would say an improvement over the previous two incarnations. (Let's face it, screechy-voiced John from T2 was the movie's most annoying aspect.) Summer Glau was the perfect choice for a female Terminator. She plays weird, emotionally distant characters very well. (Firefly, anyone?)

I'm downloading the second episode now, and crossing my fingers in hopes that they keep the quality up.

3:10 To Yuma

I'm not huge on westerns, but I do like well done ones. Silverado comes to mind. The Unforgiven. I recently watched Seraphim Falls, however, and it was horrible. Liam Neeson and James Bond, er, I mean Peirce Brosnan are great actors, but the movie was paced horribly slow, and the story just wasn't that gripping. Oh, and the ending was horrible.

3:10 To Yuma, on the other hand, was perfectly timed, well acted, and had a good ending. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale were fantastic as the main characters, and the supporting cast was just as good. There were a ton of cameos, but they were done well enough that they added to the movie, rather than distracting you from the show. All in all, a very enjoyable 2 hours.

War

No, I'm not ranting about the war in Iraq. Although I could, have, and will again.

No, this is the movie War starring Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter) and Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4, The One) as gun-toting, fist-fighting, martial arts madmen.

War starts out fairly typical for an action movie. Statham's partner in the FBI is killed by Li's character, and Statham becomes obsessed by hunting down Li to take revenge. Li goes about starting a gang war (hence the title) between the Triad and Yakuza while Statham kicks everyones' asses to get to Li.

Taken as a standard, brainless martial arts action movie, War is actually very cool right up until the last few minutes when it tries to pull off a plot twist of JJ Abrams proportions, and fails miserably. I guess it's the "in" thing now to do a good movie and then ruin it at the last minute with a shitty ending. (Thank you, Martin Scorsese, for setting this precedent with your award winning, stupid as shit ending in The Departed.)

If you like watching two guy kick ass, blow things up, and shoot the hell out of a town, War is a good way to waste and hour and a half of your life. Just ignore the ending.

Speaking of Sunshine

I was reading a review from a supposedly intelligent sci-fi fan on Netflix. They thought the view of Mars was spectacular.

Really? Mars? Going from Earth to the Sun takes you past Mars?


Mercury, people. Mercury is on the way to the Sun. I know it starts with the same letter, but come on. They teach you this shit in what, 2nd grade?

Sunshine

I bought this movie for two reasons: I love science-fiction, and I liked 28 Days Later a lot. Sunshine was directed by Danny Boyle (Not Mr. Doyle, as the New York Times would erroneously have us believe.), who directed 28 Days Later.

I was very disappointed by Sunshine. Sci-fi and Danny Boyle didn't quite make up for the film's shortcomings.

• For the first half of the film, we are treated to science-fiction. Inexplicably, the film tries to be sci-fi horror in the second half, and fails miserably. It's not scary, it just becomes stupid.
• We're led to believe that the crew started out expecting to complete the mission and return home. It quickly becomes apparent that the ship was ill-designed to survive after completing its mission. You'd think that a crew full of the supposed "best and brightest" would have seen the design flaws.
• Speaking of the ship and design flaws, not only was it not designed to survive after completing the mission, but it seemed designed to fail to complete the mission in the first place. No redundant systems, fragile equipment, only one airlock, etc. The last, best hope for humanity? You guys might as well phone home and tell them they are fucked. "Sorry people, humanity gave its best, and it was pretty bad. Might as well just kill yourselves now."

The cinamatography was brilliant, the visual effects were cool (except the goofy attempt at horror with a shaky, blurry camera), and the acting was good, but it just couldn't save the film from the poorly thought out plot and the stupid ending.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I'm not sure how good this is going to be, but it starts tomorrow on Fox. (I'll be watching the downloaded show later due to lack of cable.) Summer from Firefly is in it, so I have to check it out for that alone. I loved the first two Terminator movies, but without James Cameron, the third one sucked. I hope this has nothing to do with that train-wreck of a movie, but it probably does.

NYC - We have the toilet of the future, today!

STORY

That actually sounds very cool, except for the missing seat and the door remaining open for a full 30 seconds.

I wonder how long it will take people to start using them as spots for "quickies" with a hooker?