Monthly Archives: January 2009

Movie review roundup

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Remember that 1,300 word review of No Country For Old Men that drew over 130 comments? Well, who has time to write those anymore. Even though I’ve been on sabbatical, I’ve been too busy with other projects to write any detailed book or movie reviews, so here’s a quick roundup of movies — new and old — that I’ve seen recently, and briefly what I thought of them. What do you think? Am I way off? What else should go in the old Netflix queue?

Burn After Reading: Big disappointment. I’m usually a huge Coen fan (see above, see below), but Burn After Reading was a big miss. Despite the impressive cast, the characters were incredibly flat, and the story wasn’t the least bit engaging. Don’t waste your time on this one. See any other Coen film instead.

The Big Lebowski: I know, I know. It’s 11 years old, but I just saw a few months ago for the first time. I was driving between San Jose and San Francisco with a friend of mine who had never been to California before, and we passed an In and Out Burger. He was beside himself with excitement since he thought In and Out was a fictitious invention of the Coen Brothers. I was forced to admit that I’d never seen The Big Lebowski at which point he was scandalized. I watched it on my iPhone on the flight home, and just watched it again the other night, and plan on watching it again several more times before I die. It’s a fantastic and incredibly entertaining movie that manages to be about nothing except maybe bowling and nihilism. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. If you have, this is a reminder to watch it again.

The Virgin Suicides: Another old one, I know, but the late 90’s were a really busy time for me (so much code to write and foosball to play — you remember how it was). Anyway, I saw this one in a friend’s DVD collection, and since I like the soundtrack, I decided to check it out. It turns out I prefer the soundtrack. When the movie was over, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to have learned. When you watch The Big Lebowski, you know you weren’t really supposed to have learned anything. But after The Virgin Suicides, I was pretty sure that Sofia Coppola was trying to tell me something, but I wasn’t sure what it was, except that I shouldn’t lock my daughters in their rooms and force religion on them. Ok, done. I’m probably being overly harsh — it’s an entertaining movie, but not nearly as interesting as Lost in Translation which I was kind of hoping for.

The Day The Earth Stood Still: Not really worth spending the big bucks on (tickets here are $10.50 now!), but it’s worth checking out on Netflix, fios, etc. The message was a little cliché, but it was delivered in a semi-entertaining way. I think Keanu Reeves was handed his dream role as a emotionless alien, though I don’t think he had no opportunity to exclaim "whoa!" With the right expectations, you won’t feel like you completely wasted 103 minutes, but if you have anything at all better to do, make sure you do it first.

Slumdog Millionaire: Best movie I’ve seen in a long time. I love me some Danny Boyle (more below). I was worried when I had to drive an hour to find a theater that was screening Slumdog because I was afraid it wouldn’t reach enough people, but now it’s playing right down the street, so I guess it’s doing well. Slumdog is an incredibly suspenseful love story primarily about fate which is set in the rapidly evolving city of Mumbai. I’m not going to bother explaining the plot because the movie manages to be about much more than a plot summary can possibly do justice. Just see it. Trust me. It’s tragic, inspirational, suspenseful, triumphant, and it has great music and visuals. It’s even worth seeing on the big screen, if you can still catch it.

Sunshine: Again, not a new movie, but another really good one by Danny Boyle. I don’t think this movie ever really made it to the mainstream, but if you’re a Science Fiction fan, it’s a must-see, and very possibly, a must-own. The visuals and sounds are fantastic (a theme of Danny Boyle’s), and a few of the characters are almost magnetic — one of them, much to my surprise, being Chris Evans. Sunshine isn’t perfect by any means, but I think it’s one of the best SciFi movies in recent memory. And like the Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufman, I’ll see anything Danny Boyle is involved with.

Children of Men: Simultaneously one of the best and most under-appreciated Science Fiction movies of all time. Children of Men is incredibly intense with a fascinating plot and likable characters. I’m not sure what this says about me, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who likes this movie very much — at least not nearly as much as I do. If there’s anything at all to criticize, you might be able to say that it’s actually too intense. I actually had to pause it at one point to give myself a few moments to recover. This is a movie worth watching at least twice as there was a lot I picked up the second time that I think I was too dazed to noticed the first.

The Tale of Despereaux: I seldom take my kids to see movies, but all the rain over the Christmas holiday eventually drove us into a theater. I think I just don’t get kids movies. The only kids movies I like are Jungle Book (the 1967 version, though I wasn’t even alive then), and the Toy Story movies. WALL-E was fun, but that’s because I like robots and Macs. Anyway, despite the impressive and no doubt expensive cast, Despereaux didn’t do much for me, or for my kids, more to the point. I think they got more out of the snacks than the movie.

Quantum of Solace: I’m not crazy about this most recent interpretation of Bond. He seems more like an assassin than a British agent. I guess psychotic revenge, rule breaking, and "dropping off the grid" is supposed to be sexy and thrilling, but it all seems kind of ludicrous to me. Everything in the movie (especially the plot) seemed secondary to Daniel Craig’s blue eyes and murderous vengeance. Quantum was clearly more inspired by the Bourne movies than Ian Fleming’s wonderful creation.

The Dark Knight: Not quite as good as Batman Begins, but very good nonetheless. It’s probably the best value of any movie I’ve seen recently as they seem to pack at least two movies into one. Certainly the best Joker ever. I’m a pretty steady fan of Christian Bale, and I’m looking forward to seeing Terminator Salvation.

Iron Man: Another very good hero movie which, like the new Batman movies, manages to actually be somewhat believable. Robert Downey Jr. makes a very decent hero, and although Jeff Bridges is far from The Dude, he makes an interesting villain. I’m glad to see that the movie industry has finally figured how to make hero movies. Now it’s time to remake Spiderman so we can finally put the Tobey Maguire abominations behind us.

Rediscovering Bluetooth

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When bluetooth first started to appear in laptops and devices, I used it as much as I could. I replaced everything with a wire or a cable with its bluetooth equivalent: headset, mouse, keyboard, printer, etc. Several years later, I have almost entirely given up on bluetooth for the following reasons:

  1. I couldn’t find a headset with acceptable quality. Although they probably exist now, for some reason, I can’t bring myself to walk around with a headset attached to my head anymore. Maybe I’m afraid of brain cancer, or worse, looking really silly.
  2. I’m tired of using batteries. I’ve started using rechargeable batteries at home for things like noise canceling headphones (which I wear when I write), but replacing batteries in bluetooth devices and/or recharging them got old. What’s the point of eliminating the wire when you still have to have a charger? Having an iPhone has allowed me to reduce the number of devices I carry around with me, so I’m pretty determined to reduce the number of devices I have to keep powered, as well.
  3. Bluetooth just isn’t that much better than wires and cables. The headset that comes with the iPhone is actually really nice, and far better than any bluetooth headset I’ve seen. Not only is it extremely small and portable (it’s just earbuds with a tiny built-in mic that picks up surprisingly well) — it also doesn’t require charging and allows you to listen to conversations in stereo.

That said, I have recently found my favorite bluetooth device in the world: my new car. I just bought a Nissan Versa for commuting into the office three days a week since trying to get by with just a motorcycle in the winter was getting (c)old. Although the Versa is, by any standard, a straight-up economy car, I decided to get the SL version which comes with a few nice features: continuously variable transmission (smoother ride and better fuel efficiency), the Nissan intelligent keyless system (as long as the RFID device is in your pocket, the car unlocks and starts without requiring a key), an auxiliary-in for my phone (they actually call that a feature!), 6-CD changer (which I’ll never use), and bluetooth hands-free. (I couldn’t bring myself to get a built-in navigation system since I love my Garmin devices so much, and although I love satellite radio, I decided to try to get by with podcasts.) Of course, I realize that none of this is exactly earth-shatter new technology, but for someone whose nicest car ever was a Jeep Wrangler (without power windows), it feels pretty fancy to me.

The best part of the car, other than the fuel efficiency, is definitely the bluetooth support. The entire system works with voice commands, and can accept incoming calls and make outgoing calls given either a number, or just an address book entry. On my way home from the dealership, I called three people I hadn’t talked to in months, just because I could. I think I’m going to do a much better job of staying in touch with friends and family now — at least on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Of course, with convenience comes great responsibility, and even great peril. My wife borrowed the car last night to pick up some friends in a vehicle not-yet-covered in dog hair. While she was gone, I was talking with a friend of mine about a New Years Eve party when the call suddenly dropped. A moment later, my wife came in and asked me to elaborate on something my friend had just said. As soon as she pulled into the driveway, the call switched over to the car without my friend knowing, and suddenly he was talking to my wife instead of me. Fortunately, no secrets were inadvertently divulged, but next time, I must remember to go out to the car to make the call, or turn bluetooth off. I don’t worry about the NSA listening in on my conversations, but your wife catching fragments of New Years Eve stories can be disastrously incriminating.

So with a renewed interest in bluetooth, I decided to see what else I could do with my iPhone this morning only to find that the answer is pretty much nothing. Address Book (the app) used to have the ability to send SMS messages through a paired mobile phone via bluetooth, but it doesn’t work with the iPhone. Seriously. Nokia, yes — the iPhone, no. Nor is there any way to make calls using my MacBook’s speakers through my phone. I had envisioned using my iPhone’s headset to listen to music on my Mac while making or taking calls at the same time. Nope.

Considering the fact that Apple is now selling iPhones in Walmart, it’s clear that their target market isn’t exactly those with complicated bluetooth ambitions, but come on. They own all the hardware and all the software between the Mac and the iPhone, and the only integration is through a serial cable or subscription-based MobileMe? Lame, to put it politely.

I’ve always argued that the iPhone doesn’t have to be an open platform as long as it’s a comprehensive platform. Sort of like the idea of the Benevolent Dictator. But we’re clearly not there yet. I look forward to seeing what the next iPhone firmware update will bring along with Snow Leopard. Before Apple can claim to have completely reinvented the mobile phone, they must first finish recreating what the world already had. Oh, and don’t even get me started on Flash support. Until I can watch Fail Blog videos on my phone, it ain’t the "real web."