Lars and The Real Girl

spoilers within. One of my favorite artist is MC Escher, who made 3D images on 2D paper. He was intrigued by how easily people were fooled into believing a 2D image was 3D. He played tricks on the viewers of his art, but we still see a 3D image on the flat page. Movies are not real. They are filled with actors, sets, lights, and scripts. It’s all made up. And yet, we look at a film and it can make us cry, or laugh, or feel rage at an unjust world. Lars and The Real Girl is an extraordinary…

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Star Wars Retold

Star Wars retold my someone who hasn’t seen it. I totally thought it was Hans Solo, isn’t it like Hans Solo? Star Wars retold-it makes sense to me. I think Princess Lea looks great in the Elvis suit btw. I was one of those people that waited a year before I went and saw Star Wars and totally didn’t get it. The Empire Strikes Back, that was a great movie, but Star Wars? Not so much. So it is fun that Star Wars Retold kind skips around the trilogy and hits a number of high points. That bit about Chewy…

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The Big Bang Theory

“All I need is a healthy ovum and I can grow my own Leonard Nimoy!” –Sheldon I’ve been a Trekkie for the better part of my life and I have always loved science fiction. My love comic books has waned over the years, but I can really relate to the occasional philosophical discussions on comic books that happen on The Big Bang Theory. In the Christmas episode-The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis-the show opens with a debate on how Superman gets his tights clean and if, in fact, it is possible to get the Kryptonian fabric dirty in the first place.…

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Bejeweled Twist

PopCap has sold more than 25 million Bejeweled games, with over 350 million copies downloaded, making it one of the most successful game franchises in history.-Amazon One of my favorite computer games is Bejeweled 2, which is an upgrade of Bejeweled. The latest in the family of Tetris like games is Bejeweled Twist. The big addition to Bejeweled 2 was the Hypercube, which removed all like colored jewels when used. The five jewel combo on Bejeweled Twist gets rid of the horizontal and vertical rows when activated. This new version of Bejeweled is hard. Or maybe I am just getting…

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Recut Trailer-The Matrix

Ok, I am not the huge fan of YouTube that I could be, but I do like a lot of the silliness that can be found there. One of my blog buddies-Grumpus-had a post recently featuring a great recut movie trailer of The Shinning-which made it look like a love story/coming of age story. I had never heard of Recut Movie Trailers, but this seems to be a booming bit of the make your own video universe. Trailer Mash if full of these wonderfully twisted bits of business. Take a comedy and make a trailer for a horror movie and…

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Model Rockets

Like Red Ryder BB Guns, Model Rockets are among those toys most coveted by children and most feared by parents. If shooting your eye is a concern, how about being blown up? The reality of model rockets is a bit of a let down. You get the cool little fuel pellets, put them inside a nicely painted cardboard and plastic rocket, run a little but of wire and flip a switch. Zoom goes the rocket in a nice little cloud of smoke. Then you have trudge around looking for the thing once it parachutes back down to earth. As with…

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Golden Ticekt Awards 2008

2008 Golden Ticket Awards from Amusement Today magazine are out and the usual suspects have most of the top spots. In my travels I have been to a number of amusement parks, some good, some great, and some just so-so. My personal favorite is Kennywood near Pittsburgh. But I have to admit that I did like Cedar Point as well. The Sky Ride was among the old style rides that I prefer to death defying roller coasters. It is nice to see Schlitterbahn makes three appearances on the list, as well as Six Flags San Antonio- always root for the…

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