Millennium (1989)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning:  I’m going to give away major details about the movie, including and up to the end of the movie.  If you’re not into this sort of stuff, now would be a good time to stop reading.

I saw Millennium a long time ago.  It’s one of those movies where I remembered a few key scenes, but not much else.  I think I may have watched it at a friend’s house.  What little I remember, I remember having questions about, which I’ll get to later.

The movie starts with two planes colliding.  It’s scary enough to be piloting a doomed aircraft, but the navigator goes back to check on the passengers to find that they’re all burned.  This wouldn’t be unusual, except that the plane hasn’t crashed yet.

Enter Bill Smith.  He spends long periods of time going around investigating plane crashes.  This one shouldn’t be that unusual, except that the navigator was heard on the black box saying how all the passengers were dead.  Was he hallucinating from the stress of being on a doomed flight?  Maybe they heard wrong.

That alone wouldn’t be that suspicious, except that that this scientist, Dr. Arnold Mayer, is nosing around.  He seems to have a thing for plane crashes.  He investigates them hoping to find something.  In any event, they have a lot of wreckage to go through.  In fact, someone comments on the fact that they have flight attendants serving coffee.  When Smith asks for some coffee, the flight attendant he calls for runs away.

Well, it doesn’t take long for her to approach him and set up a date for that night.  They spend the night together and in the morning, she asks him not to go in to work.  They won’t miss him for a day.  Right?  He leaves for work, but realizes that he’s forgotten something in his room.  When he goes back, she’s not only gone, but the room looks like it was just made up.

It turns out that mystery woman, Louise Baltimore, is from the future.  In the future, humanity is on the brink of extinction, having run the planet into the ground.  She and her team are coming back in time to take people that won’t be missed to help repopulate the world.  The idea is that since the people are going to die on plane crashes anyway, no one will notice that they’re gone if you replace them with a dead body of similar size and makeup.

The trouble is that her team is kind of sloppy.  Not only does Louise lose her stunner for Smith to find, but a member of her team loses a stunner for Mayer to find as a child.  Yes, Mayer was the lone survivor of a plane crash.  He found a stunner and was able to keep part of it.  When Mayer and Smith meet, Mayer is able to put together a complete stunner and accidentally kill himself.  This causes a massive time paradox, which forces the future people to send their kidnapped people into the distant future to repopulate the world.  Baltimore and Smith end up going with them, presumably to live happily ever after.

I have several problems with the movie.  First, the team of time travelers don’t seem to be that good.  Yes, I realize that humanity’s population has dwindled and it’s possible that this is the best that humanity has to offer, but you think they’d at least know better than to leave technology which doesn’t belong.

Also, the movie seems to take both sides of predetermination.  Baltimore can look back into her past, but there are certain parts that are censored so that she doesn’t know what her personal future holds.  Thus, there is some sense that she’s destined to go back in time.  However, it’s still possible to screw things up royally.  You could leave parts of a stunner for someone to find and assemble only to have them cause a major paradox and destroy everything.

This leads me to the third in this chain of questions.  If it’s possible for the future society to quickly make a hotel room look like it was made up, couldn’t they have a way to track and recall their own technology?  You’d think that as Baltimore’s team was being recalled, they’d be like, “Oh, she dropped a stunner.  Let me just get that and…done.”  Instead, they set up several paradoxes that they attempt to fix, only to make things worse.

On this note, one thing that I remember wondering is how the kidnapped people were able to be sent into the future.  If you can change the past and affect the present to create a paradox, wouldn’t that mean that the entire operation would go away?  It does, which means that there would be no machine to take people from the past and no machine to send them into the future.  I can see that they’d at least take the chance, but what’s the point?  It seemed like they were certain that the people would survive.

Also, you’re sending all of these random people into an unknown situation.  At least in those hypothetical situations you had in school, you had several useful people to chose from, like a doctor and a lawyer.  Here, they’re just sending in whoever they have and hoping for the best.  Yes, I realize that it was kind of rushed.  They were probably planning on having more time and they probably were looking for particular people.  If you’re going to take one person from a doomed flight, why not just take all of the passengers?

One big thing was why they had to go so far back.  I guess they wanted to make sure that they had people well before any catastrophic event that decimated the planet, but they had to replace the people with bodies that were genetically the same and probably even had the same fingerprints and personal items.  How did they know?  How were they able to get DNA to create a clone?  How did the get fingerprint records?  Did they have to make another trip that we never saw?

The movie is based on a short story, which may explain some of this.  I’d have to read it to know for certain.   This is one of the few cases where I could see a remake being an improvement.  It has some interesting aspects, like getting people from planes to repopulate the planet, but doesn’t put them together all that well.  It’s one of those things that would have been better if more had been explained. 

IMDb page

Style Wars (1983)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

When I was a kid, I remember associating New York City trains with graffiti. That seemed to be one of the images presented on TV and in media, fairly or unfairly. Then again, it was just paint to me back then. I thought people were just taking spray paint and putting up random images on the trains. Not only has New York City has cleaned up their image since then, but I have come to learn that the images are more than random.

Style Wars goes into what the images mean and shows who’s making them. Those doing it, who sometimes call themselves bombers, want to get their name out among others that are doing it. If you get your name on enough trains, you can be seen all over New York City. There are detractors. Those interviewed called it a quality-of-life issue, comparing it to prostitution or picking someone’s pocket. Many people didn’t like it. There’s also a pretty heavy price tag associated with getting rid of the paint.

New York City eventually cracked down on it, which is probably why I don’t associate graffiti with the trains any more. The documentary showed this campaign that the city had involving celebrities. There is a certain reverence paid to the graffiti artists, though. The crackdown is shown in a somewhat negative light, almost like the end of an era. The graffiti artists had to move on to other means of expression.

The movie didn’t so much put graffiti in a positive light, though. It was mostly showing who did this and maybe even why. There was one kid talking about it in front of his mother, who just didn’t get it. There was another guy who had only one arm, yet managed to do graffiti anyway. Despite complaining from the public and the best efforts of the transit authority and Mayor Ed Koch, people still found a way in to mark the trains. Everyone that did it had some way in.

There was one kid that was saying how he could get away with $50 or $100 in spray paint. Once he had a trench coat, all he had to do was wait for a couple of black or Hispanic kids to come in and he could stuff the trench coat was the limit. There was another kid trying to explain why he did it with his mother in the background. She kept rolling her eyes whenever he would say something like how he would never get caught.

The documentary focused mostly on the graffiti, but showed other aspects of life that went along with it, saying at one point that rap was the spoken word and graffiti was the written word. It seemed like the rap and break dancing were filler, though. It was almost like the producers didn’t have enough graffiti to go around and needed something a little more.

The movie really wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. Even at 70 minutes, it seemed long at times. Part of it was that the film quality wasn’t that good. (That has to do not only with the movie being 25 years old, but also with the producers using smaller, more portable video cameras which have lower quality.) When I was done with it, I ended up returning it to NetFlix pretty quickly. (I’m beginning to think I should have watched some of the extras.)

I read that there was a follow-up documentary done recently, but I don’t know if I’m going to watch that. This was more of a three-star movie. If I have the time and I’m running out of movies on my NetFlix queue, I may get it. As for this movie, I think I’d recommend the same thing to you. Don’t waste a lot of time getting it, but if it comes on while you’re watching PBS or something, go for it. 

IMDb page

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

When I first saw coming attractions for Oz the Great and Powerful, I knew I wanted to see it.  I had been reading some of the books and had seen the 1930s movie.  I had a sense that this hadn’t used any of them as direct source material, instead creating a new story about how Oz came to a land called Oz.  The original movie is still under copyright protection, but the books have fallen into public domain.  Still, there are some references to the original movie.

It starts in black-and-white Kansas circa 1905.  Oscar Diggs is a second-rate magician at a traveling carnival.  He seems to have a way with ladies.  That is to say, he has one routine he uses to charm a girl in each town.  When this comes back to bite him, he finds the nearest balloon and proceeds to get lost as quickly as he can.  He travels directly into, of all things, a tornado that takes him to the Technicolor land of Oz.

The first thing he does is meet the beautiful Theodora, who tells Oz that she and everyone else in Oz would be saved by a great and powerful wizard bearing the same name as the land.  Along the trip back to The Emerald City, they meet Finley, a talking, flying monkey.   Finley pledges his life to Oz until he realizes what that might entail.  Oz is a bit reluctant, himself.  He knows he’s no great wizard.

Promises of the royal treasure does help persuade him.  Theodora’s sister, Evanora, tells Oz that in order to get the treasure, he has to kill a wicked witch.  Along the way, he meets China Girl, a ceramic person whose village was destroyed.  (Yes, that is the name listed on IMDb.)  Oz fixes her, so they head off to find this witch, only to find out that she’s the good witch Glinda.

It’s up to Glinda, Oz, Finley and China Girl to defeat the two wicked witches.  Mostly, it’s up to Oz, who seems to bear the brunt of this prophecy.  He doesn’t really start to take things seriously until late in the movie, when he devises a plan.  Not everyone knows what’s going on, as he keeps most of it a secret.  (On this note, it is a prequel.  As such, you know what will become of most of the characters.  I don’t think I’ve really revealed much in the way of surprises.)

There are a few references to the 1939 movie you may catch.  One of Oz’s love interests in Kansas says she’s going to marry a man named Gale.  There are a lot of Oz-based characters that resemble Kansas-based characters.  Other than the characters, that’s where the similarity seems to end.  If you’ve seen the original movie, I don’t know if James Franco would be your first choice to play the man who would become The Great and Powerful Oz.  (It does look like there will be a sequel to this movie, so we may get to see how he transitions.)

L. Frank Baum created characters that wanted most what they already had.  (The scarecrow wanted intelligence, but already seem to possess great skill and cunning.)  In this sense, this movie holds true to the books.  Oz wants to be a great magician.  What he doesn’t realize until coming to Oz is that he has the ability to do great things.  He just has to use his considerable skills to his advantage.  With some help, he’s able to pull this off.

Those coming into the movie without having read the books or seen the other movies will probably miss out on a lot of the references.   We get to see the flying monkeys, which are very dark in this movie.  They’re used mostly for brute force here.  (In the books, they were capable of dialogue.  If I recall, they tied to a hat which would grand the user three wishes within the monkeys’ power.)

I had wanted to see the movie in theaters, partly because of the 3D aspect.  I didn’t feel like paying a lot of money for that.  (I don’t think theaters give any sort of special discount on 3D for early birds.)  I ended up getting it through Redbox with a free code.  I wasn’t able to watch it in 3D, though.  (I’m not even sure how they’d do this.)  If I could see it in 3D, I’d probably consider doing it.  There were a few scenes that would have been great for that, but I’m not holding my breath. 

IMDb page

Pi (1998)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Max Cohen is either crazy or a genius. He basically sits at home all day and looks for patterns in the stock market. Max also suffers from severe headaches and delusions. In most cases, he’d be dismissed as some math freak in need of some serious medical attention. He must be on to something, though; two groups seem to be interested in him. He keeps getting calls from an investment firm, but Max keeps trying to get rid of them. He’s not even sure how they got his number. Then, there’s a group of Hassidic Jews who are looking for patterns in the Bible. Both are interested in a 216-digit number, but for different reasons. Both groups agree that Max is the man to get what they want for them. Once he does, he doesn’t want to give it up. It’s not easy being Max.

You don’t have to be some math genius to understand the movie. Much of what goes on in the movie is explained in some detail. For instance, there’s a brief explanation about what kinds of codes are being sought from the Bible. (There really is a Jewish numerology based on the Torah.) You may not understand every last detail, but you don’t really have to. I didn’t understand some of it, myself.

I have to warn you that there’s a high gross-out factor to this movie. (I really wish Epinions had a separate bar for that, along with suspense and quality of special effects.) For starters, Max often gets bloody noses. It gets much worse from there. If you’re squeamish, this isn’t your movie. I’d say that as for age range, this is definitely a movie for adults. Even then, I know a lot of adults that wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Another thing is that there are a lot of themes that might not be suitable for children. It’s not unsuitable in the sense of adult or vulgar themes. It’s just that many younger children might not be able to understand everything. Had I seen this while I was in middle school, I probably would have though it was just some bizarre movie about this weird guy that has problems. Now that I’m an adult, I can appreciate much more of it.

There’s also a low-budget look to the movie. That might have something to do with the fact that there was actually a relatively small budget, but I don’t feel that it takes anything away from the movie. In fact, it works well. The story has a very dark feel to it, given that Max has so many people interested in him. (It also works well because Max wants to see things in black and white.)

The only problem that I had was when Max referred to the Golden Number as theta. I’m pretty sure that it’s called Phi. It’s not a major problem, but Max does go into some detail about it and seems to know quite a bit about it.

I’d give the movie five stars. At 84 minutes, it’s a very short movie, but it’s paced just right. The acting, direction and script were all done perfectly. I’m recommending the movie, but again, I want to remind you that it’s not for everyone. 

IMDb page

Hotel Transylvania (2012) = A Nonlethal Varsity

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I don’t know why, but when I get free stuff, my standards seem to be a lot lower.  This applies even when I have a wide range of selections to choose from.  Take Redbox.  Occasionally, I get codes for free movies, but the codes have to be used that day.  One of the problems with Redbox is that I can’t always get my first choice.  Sometimes, I can’t even get my second or third choice.  Since I’m already at the kiosk, wasting the code seems like a bad idea.  Even if I don’t like the movie, I’ll get a review out of it.

Hotel Transylvania was such a title.  I’m not a huge fan of Adam Sandler.  I knew going into this that he voiced Dracula, but he was at least tolerable in Click, so I figured that I’d give Hotel Transylvania a chance.  If you’re reading this, it means that I’ve gotten my review out of it and have commenced forgetting about the movie.

The story is that Dracula wants to protect his daughter, Mavis.  He hasn’t had the best of luck with humans.  Most monsters are of similar mind, so Dracula opened Hotel Transylvania.  The idea was that he’d build it someplace that humans wouldn’t know about and would set things up so that they wouldn’t want to go there even if they stumbled upon it.

Well, everyone’s coming over for Mavis’s 118th birthday celebration and wouldn’t you know it, a human named Johnny happens to stumble upon the hotel.  (Actually, he follows some monsters back from Dracula’s ill-advised attempt to trick Mavis into staying at the hotel.)  Anyway, Dracula notices Johnny before anyone else does.  Killing him outright is out of the question.  He can’t have him stay, though, for fear of upsetting the guests.  Sneaking him out proves problematic, so Dracula tries to hide Johnny as a long-lost relative of the right arm of Frankenstein’s monster, Johnny Stein.  Every attempt to deal with Johnny causes further complications, eventually leading to Johnny meeting (and falling for) Mavis.

This is what makes up most of the movie’s 91 minutes.  It’s Dracula being an overprotective father and making a few mistakes along the way, then having to fix them in the end when he realizes what it will really take to make his daughter happy.  Along the way, you have a lot of familiar monsters, at least in name.  You have Wayne the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, Eunice (a.k.a. Bride of Frankenstein), Quasimodo, the Invisible Man and so on.  I don’t think any of them act the way that they did in the movie.  Frankenstein is very friendly, for instance, even if he does fall apart on occasion.  Wayne is also normal father that tries to provide for his wife and many children.

It was a good movie, but it wasn’t great.  The one big drawback was Fran Drescher.  Had I known she was in the movie, I probably would have rented something else.  As with Sandler, I’m not particularly a big fan.  She wasn’t bad in this movie, but knowing that both were in this movie probably would have killed it.  There were a lot of people that I did like, such as Steve Buscemi, CeeLo Green and Jon Lovitz.

I also wasn’t a big fan of the style of animation.  It was a little exaggerated for me.  As I said, I was renting this for free, so I figured I’d at least try it.  However, animation is already a strike for some people.  Even for those that like animation, they may not like this style.  There were also a few scary moments when Dracula tried to intimidate Johnny.  It wasn’t wet-your-pants scary, but I was caught off guard and thought that it was a little out of place for a comedy.  We’re talking a few shots, a second or two each.

Ultimately, I have to learn to be more selective the next time I go to Redbox.   I think part of the problem with Redbox is that I tend to feel a little rushed and given the limited selection, I usually get the first thing that seems safe rather than take my time to find something I like.  Getting a movie like Hotel Transylvania is the result.  It wasn’t a horrible movie, but it wasn’t a great movie, either. 

IMDb page

Nikon Speedlight SB-600 Shoe Mount Flash for Nikon

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

When I first got a Nikon D50, there were a few things I wanted to get. One thing I new I needed was a flash. This becomes evident mostly when taking indoor pictures. My cat would often get those green eyes commonly associated with pets. Pictures of rooms were yellowish or blurry. Even with the flash, they weren't great. There were also times outdoors when things would be backlit. I have a lot of pictures that would have benefited greatly from a flash.

My three choices were the SB-400, SB-600 and the SB-800. The SB-400, I'm told, is very basic. You can't even swivel from left to right with it. The SB-800, I'm told, is more expensive, but not worth it if you don't have one of the higher-end cameras. The only big difference between the 600 and the 800 is in setting up several flashes. I have no need for this, so I figured I'd save myself a hundred dollars or so and go for the SB-600.

If you do decide to get the SB-600, you'll need to buy four AA batteries. I've had a set for a while now and they've lasted a while. I would recommend keeping a spare set, just in case. I haven‘t had this one go out yet, so I have no idea if the power reduces or if the flash just stops working. (Note: Like most devices that use batteries, be sure to remove them when not using the flash, as they will eventually leak.)

You put the flash on using a hot-shoe adapter. Your camera should have a hot-shoe protector, which you'll need to take off before putting on the flash. Once on, the flash has a locking mechanism to help keep the flash on. I have actually left the flash unlocked only to have it slide off slightly.

The SB-600 is a bounce flash. This means that you can have it pointing strait up, forward or anywhere in between. If you have a light-colored ceiling, you can use it to diffuse the flash and give more even tones. You also have the option of moving the flash to the left or right. This is something you'll have to play around with to see how well it works. I could probably write an entire article just on how to use the tilt and swivel on a flash. The important thing is that you have options not available to you with your onboard flash and those two options do make a huge difference in your pictures. (You can, technically, point the flash towards you, but I don't recommend this.)

On the back of the flash is a display showing various settings and options. The flash will adjust depending on the focal distance. (The flash does have its limits and leaving the diffuser down causes the flash to simply go to 14mm.) If you turn the camera off, the flash goes to standby. You have to turn the flash back on before shutting it off, which is a bit annoying if you're in a rush.

I can say that I have yet to have a problem with the flash. The battery life has proven to be good and my pictures are better. I have yet to get red eye (or green eye) with it. Go to Flickr and look for pictures with the SB-600. Most of the pictures I've taken with the SB-600 are tagged as such. (You'll find some nice pictures, if I do say so myself...) The flash gets four stars.

Quiz Show (1994)

Note:  This review does give away major plot points including the ending.  The movie is based on fact and probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the story.  However, if you don’t like knowing a lot going in, you might want to wait before reading the review.


Herb Stempel was a hero in his neighborhood.  He had won a lot of money on a quiz show named Twenty-One.  The object was to answer questions.  Difficulty was based on the number of points, from one to 11.  The goal was to get 21 points.  Stempel had won for several weeks and seemed happy about it.  The catch was that the producers were feeding him the answers.  Enter Charles Van Doren.  His family is well known.  He’s good looking.  He’s basically more useful than Stempel, at least from an advertising standpoint.  The ratings have hit a plateau, so the producers want Stempel to take a dive.  He’s to answer a tough question incorrectly.

When the producers pitch the idea to Van Doren, he is a bit nervous.  He doesn’t think it’s right, so they all laugh it off.  He appears on the show and seems to do well on his own.  Then, the moment of truth comes.  He’s asked a question that he knows they know he has the answer for.  It’s the very same question they overheard him answer in the office.  He has three choices.  He can admit what’s happening on national television and risk embarrassing everyone, assuming he’s even believed.  He can quietly take a dive as Stempel did and risk losing the game.  Instead, he chooses to give the correct answer.

He goes on to higher ratings (and more money) than Stempel.  Stempel goes back to his wife and neighborhood, ashamed that he had to miss such an easy question.  (It was a question everyone knew that he should know.)  Stempel tries to hit up the network for more money.  He could easily be put on some sort of panel show or something.  The network politely declines.  Stempel threatens to sue, but that leads to sealed court records. Stempel now has no one to turn to.  That is, until Dick Goodwin comes knocking on his door.

Goodwin is a congressional investigator looking for a big story.  He wonders why the court records would need to be sealed.  He eventually knocks on Stempel’s door and finds his mother lode.  Since Stempel isn’t a particularly likable guy and he is the only witness, the investigation stalls.  It isn’t until Van Doren is subpoenaed that anything happens.  The network and sponsor deny everything.  Even if they had known, none of the accused actions were illegal, per se.  It’s tricky, since the questions and answers were said to be locked in a safe, but it was never expressly stated that contestants weren’t given the answers beforehand.  The producers are left to take the blame for everything.

There is a certain irony in that those in charge tried to play off the scandal in that the game show was little more than entertainment.  The facts are meaningless.  I’m sure that liberties were taken with the story here.  There is an implicit understanding that this is done, though.  It’s not the first movie to do so and won’t be the last.  We do go to movies to be entertained.  The issue with the game show was that they seemed to go to some trouble to make it look like the people were actually competing.

Interestingly, this entire story ends up being the basis for the format of a particular current game show.  The story goes that after the scandal had broken, it would be difficult to get a network to buy into a new quiz show.  Merv Griffin was discussing it with his wife, Julann.  She suggested that contestants be given the answers and would have to respond with questions.   From what I understand, the idea had been used before.  However, the recent history coupled with low prize amounts got the network’s approval.

I did enjoy the movie, but I’m curious as to why this particular era of TV history was chosen.  I’m not saying that it’s a story that doesn’t deserve to be told.  I’m just not sure if there was a lot of interest.  If you mentioned the scandal to most people, I’d imagine that they’d find it of passing interest at best.  (There are times I’ve told people things that I’ve found very interesting only to get, “um…ok,” as a response.)

There is a morality play that’s somewhat evident.  Stempel seems comfortable with the lie.  The story starts several weeks into his run on Twenty-One.  We don’t see him prepped or vetted.  We do get to see Van Doren auditioning for another game show.  He’s someone that is presented as an honest person to start with.

We imagine that Stempel was probably honest, too.  His reasons for going along with it are understandable.  Who would turn down easy money and fame?  He wants to be more financially independent.  He likes the respect he gets from people.  It’s almost like a drug for him.  Stempel is what any of us could easily become.

With Van Doren, it’s a little different.  He’s already well off.  He already has a name for himself and comes from a respectable family.  He’s being presented with the chance to make being bookish and nerdy more accessible to the common person.  If a guy like him can make a lot of money, why not try to be like him?  The problem is that it’s all based on a lie and Van Doren knew it.  He could treat it abstractly it all he wants, but once he goes down that road, he can never go back.

Stempel and Van Doren could easily have said nothing and have walked away.  Granted, some one else would have eventually spoken up or made a fatal mistake.  Goodwin did find evidence of the deception going through old tapes, so someone would have at least known something was going on.  Ultimately, Van Doren will always be the good guy gone bad and Stempel will have to live with being the guy who missed an easy question.

IMDb page

GE Slimline 292674 Single Line Corded Phone

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The phone for my land line wouldn’t be a big deal except that cell phones don’t like to work in my house. I do spend a lot of time in my room either watching television or writing reviews. On the rare occasions where I need to buy a phone, I try to get one with caller ID. I don’t really need speed dial, as I know the few numbers that I need to know. (You know… work, friends, 900 numbers… er, um … I mean pizza delivery.)

I came across the 29267 when I was looking to get a new phone. My primary concern was price, really. I need a phone. As I stated, the only thing it needs to do is identify calls. I also wanted something with a cord. Wireless phones tend to be more of a pain than anything. As long as it can hear the person on the other end, though, I won‘t go back asking for a refund.

That’s not to say I don’t have complaints. When I get an incoming call, it’s hard to read the display. This has a lot to do with the positioning of the phone, though. The cord that goes into the wall from the phone is just short enough that I have to keep it on the edge of my desk. I have to lean over pretty far to see the display. Now, there really aren’t many people that I’m avoiding, but I don’t like telemarketers and people that do surveys. I like to let unidentified 800 numbers go to voicemail if I can help it.

As with other phones that have caller ID, cell phones will often be displayed as a city and state. Thus, if you don’t have your friends’ phone numbers committed to memory, you may have to take a chance once in a while. With land lines, the phone goes by whoever’s name is on the bill. Thus, if it’s a company’s line, the company’s name will appear on the caller ID. Not a problem if your significant other works in the same office every day.

If you need to call someone back, it’s pretty easy to scroll down the list of recent numbers and find the number. It even displays time and date so that you can more easily tell which number someone called from. If you want to dial using the phone’s memory, you have a dial button you can press. Once dials the number with the one, area code and phone number. A second press gets rid of the one. A third press gets rid of the area code. The next press starts over. (I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do if you need to dial a one and no area code.)

If you need to delete the numbers, perhaps to clean up redundant entries, you can delete them by pressing the button marked ‘delete’. I don’t know if there’s any way to delete all the numbers at once. I guess you just have to go through them one by one. The phone can store 50 numbers, so you’ll be in for a workout.

As you may recall, I mentioned that the phone stores the numbers with time and date. Don’t worry about setting the time and date, as the phone takes care of this with the first incoming call. If you’re not a popular person, you have two options. You can either be patient and wait or you can call yourself from a friends house just to get the time set up. I don’t use this phone to tell time, so I was more than willing to be patient.

You do need 4 AA batteries if you want to use the caller ID. Without the batteries, the phone still works. You just won’t be able to tell who’s calling. I’ve noticed that the batteries don’t need changing on caller ID phones. The last one I had needed new batteries once. I’ve had this one for at least a year, I think, and I don’t recall the batteries ever going out.

The cord that it comes with that goes from the base to the handset isn’t very long, but it’s enough to go from where the phone sits to where I sit. Normally, this isn’t an issue. Sometimes, the cord tangles and the phone falls, but it has yet to break or get seriously damaged. It still works.

Overall, I’d give the phone four stars. It’s not spectacular. It won’t give you winning lottery numbers or cook breakfast for you. It’s just a phone. But it has served me well.

Real Genius (1985)

Growing up, there were certain movies that seemed to come on a lot.  If you had pay channels, you were usually treated a limited selection any given month, so it wasn’t unusual to see the same movie several times.  One of the movies I remember was Real Genius.   Val Kilmer played Chris Knight, a genius who’s ready to graduate.  Replacing him is Mitch Taylor, played by Gabriel Jarret, a fifteen-year-old whiz kid.  Mitch is recruited by Professor Jerry Hathaway, who’s building a laser.  As it so happens, that’s what Mitch is interested in.

Mitch is rather straight laced.  He’s all study and no party, as opposed to Chris, who’s all party and almost study.  Professor Hathaway needs his laser, as in right now, so Chris’s lack of work is a problem.  In fact, the good professor threatens to not pass Chris in a necessary class that only Hathaway teaches.  As the school year progresses, Chris gets Mitch to loosen up a bit.  Mitch gets Chris to work a little harder, even if it’s to show Hathaway who’s boss.

They’re joined by a hyperactive/insomniac woman who seems to have a thing for Mitch.  There’s also Kent, who is the teacher‘s pet writ large.  (He’s what they call a legend in his own mind.)  Kent, Mitch and Chris are joined on the laser project by "Ick" Ikagami.  Oh, and there’s a guy named Lazlo Hollyfeld living in the closet of Mitch and Chris’s dorm room.

There were a lot of memorable scenes in the movie.  The one I remember is a series of scenes showing an increasing number of students recording a lecture until the professor gives up and simply leaves a recording of his planned lecture.  Another is Mitch discovering Lazlo’s secret lair.  I remember wishing I had something like that.

One thing I never noticed until my most recent viewing is that the movie features not one but two revenge stories.  After Mitch is tormented by Kent and his lackeys, Chris convinces Mitch to not only stay by get back at Kent by moving Kent’s car into his dorm room.  Later, when Chris is confronted with the reality of not graduating and getting his dream job, Mitch returns the favor.  Not only does Chris stay and graduate, they get back at Hathaway for being such an arrogant jerk.

This leads to a scene tested on Mythbusters.  (Note:  If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want the ending spoiled, skip this paragraph.)  For those that have seen the movie, you probably remember the laser-made popcorn destroying Hathaway’s house.  Yes, it is possible for a laser to make popcorn.  However, it was determined that the destruction of the house could not have been the result of the popcorn.  Once it fills up the house, the pressure of the structure should be enough to keep the resulting volume from expanding.  The popcorn on the edge will be crushed.

The movie has a very goofy slant to it.  Part of the beauty of the movie is that it owns its goofiness.  It can be extreme, but isn’t really.  Yes, Chris and Mitch are opposites, at least during the course of the movie, but they manage to learn from each other.  They each learn to own their own lives and realize that they do have some control over their lives.  We all have to grow up, but how we do that is up to us.  Even Lazlo has hope.

IMDb page

The Imitation Game (2014)

I remember watching Wheel of Fortune as a child.  For those that have never seen an episode, contestants are playing a version of hangman with prizes.  The winner of the game goes on to a bonus round where they have to select five consonants and one vowel.  Those are the only selections they can make.  If they’re lucky, a lot of blank spaces will be filled in, making it easy for them to win. I had noticed that people tended towards R, S, T, L and N for their consonants and usually picked E as their vowel.  I asked my mother why this was.  She told me that those are the most commonly sued letters in English.  If you have no idea which letters to pick, you pick those.  (This was before they started giving you those letters outright.  The ones you‘d pick now are C, D, M and A.)

This is important for cryptographers.  If you have an encrypted text of sufficient length, you can do a frequency analysis.  If it’s encrypted with a simple substitution cipher, you’ll get most of the letters right.  The Germans got around this by using the Enigma.  It had been around before the war, but proved useful to the German government because it moved the cipher every so often.  You might start moving one letter off, with A becoming B.  After each letter, the machine moves one additional letter so that A becomes C, then D, then E.  This makes frequency analysis useless.  The easiest way for Allied Forces to break the code was basically to steal a machine and the corresponding code book.

There had to be an easier way.  Poland had broken the Enigma, but this wasn’t the same machine.  Germany had made the military version better than the commercial version by adding two rotors.  Enter Alan Turing.  He believed that he could build a machine that could make a brute-force attack easier.  The machine would run through possible combinations until it found one.  If they could eliminate enough combinations, it would work.

He and several other people worked at Bletchley Park to break the Enigma.  Turing was not a social person.  He successfully made a power play at Bletchley Park, then fired two of his coworkers.  He did want to work with Joan Clarke at a time when women were usually relegated to the secretary pool.  He could rub people the wrong way, but he did get his machine to work.  He was able to decode Axis messages, thus shortening the war and saving millions of lives.

Being that this is based on history, those familiar with Turing’s life will probably know how the movie ends.  Those that don’t might want to stop reading, as I’m about to give away the ending.  During his time at Bletchley Park, Turing was suspected of being a spy.  He was cleared, but it turned out that he had another secret:  He was homosexual.  Given the option of prison or chemical castration, Turing chose castration.  He eventually committed suicide.

I asked in a previous review how historical figures might react to modern technology.  Consider that I’m writing this review on a device that is his legacy.  I do this knowing that other people will be using other similar devices.  I even get hits from IMDb’s mobile page.  How would Turing feel about a device that had more utility and computing power than he could imagine possible and could fit in your pocket?

I wonder what history would look like had he lived.  Modern computing owes its existence because of what he did.  You’re reading this on a computer because of him.  The fact that he was gay trumped this.  The title of the movie refers to what eventually became known as the Turing test, which is designed to test if you’re dealing with a person or not.  Imagine the further contributions he could have made.

IMDb page

Hancock (2008)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are certain things that most superheroes have in common.  For starters, there's almost always a secret identity involved.  Superman has Clark Kent.  Spiderman goes about his non-hero business as Peter Parker.  Not so with Hancock.  Everyone knows him as such and he always uses the same identity.  He dresses in everyday clothing and has no alter ego.  He even goes through most of the movie without even thinking of a special costume.

His full name is John Hancock, an allusion to the most famous of signatures.  (The reference is explained in the movie.)  John is the most basic of heroes.  He doesn't seem to have use for social skills or manners.  When he arrives to help someone, he does what he has to do to save their lives, but doesn't seem to care what the consequences are.  This bothers many elected officials, public servants and common people.

To give you a good example, Ray Embry, played by Jason Bateman, enters the movie when Hancock saves him from an oncoming train.  Ray made the mistake of stopping on the track and not noticing said oncoming train because he was talking on the phone.  Instead of picking up the car and flying off, Hancock chooses to stop the train, thus derailing it.  Yes, Ray gets to live another day, but the railroad company is left to clean up a huge mess.

Everyone at the scene is upset with Hancock because this is just the latest in a string of messes he's made.  Ray, recognizing that Hancock saved his life, decides to repay him by trying to change his image.  Turns out, he's an advertising executive, so he knows a little about changing image.  Apparently, Ray likes a challenge.

Ray's wife doesn't think that the makeover will work.  Hancock is not only impolite, but he's a drunk and a rather mean one at that.  He lives in a trailer far removed from anyone else.  He seems to hate everyone for calling him what he is.  I don't know that he's necessarily a bad person.  It's just that, as I said earlier, he doesn't realize why it's important to be polite.  He knows that stopping a carjacking or a murder is the right thing to do.  He doesn't realize that form is at least as important as function.

Hancock seemed a bit over the top at times.  In one scene, he throws a kid so far up in the air that he has to wait a minute or two to catch him.  (Another scene is not fit for describing in mixed company, but you won't be able to listen to the theme to Sanford and Son the same way.)  The bad guys, on the other hand, seemed a bit flat.  I felt like they were just there to give Hancock something to do.

I don't know if there was any source material, like we have with other superheroes, who seem to be based mostly on comics.  This was a good thing for me because it all seemed new.  Even though comic-based books do deviate a little from the source material, you generally know the basic information like where they came from and who the main bad guys are.  (Despite never having read a comic book in my life, I can usually point out the minor changes to the story.)

I felt like Hancock's back story could have been spread out a little.  We spend a good portion of the movie learning about the basics of Hancock, like what a jerk he is.  We also learn that he woke up with amnesia, not knowing who he was.  Then, we have a good portion of his history dumped on us all at once.  I could have seen the information being spread out over several movies.  A hero with amnesia does seem interesting.

Despite the flaws, I do recommend the movie to people.  This is not a movie for children, as there's quite a bit of name calling and vulgarity, not to mention images that small children may not be able to deal with.  Interestingly enough, it does look like there will be a sequel, at least according to IMDb.  I'd definitely be interested in seeing it. 

IMDb page

Grave of the Fireflies/Hotaru no haka (1988)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are some movies that seem to take on a life beyond what they were intended for. From what I understand, Grave of the Fireflies was originally written as a book by an author who needed to deal with some issues in his childhood. While I can’t really elaborate without ruining the story, I can say that the movie has become somewhat of an anti-war movie.

The movie takes place in Japan during the final months of World War II. Seita is a boy about high-school age. He works and goes to school, but both his school and place of employment are destroyed when Allied forces begin air raids on his home town. He’s told by his mother to look after his sister, Setsuko, and to make sure that they both get to the shelter safely. (Their father is in the Japanese Navy and is away at war.)

Both make it to safety, but are separated from their mother. After the raid, they find out that their mother didn’t fare well. She has to be taken to a hospital, but dies en route leaving the brother to look after his sister. Fortunately, there’s an aunt who can take them in, but she’s too strict for the siblings’ liking. Seita makes the decision to strike out on their own rather than live with the aunt.

This proves more difficult than he originally anticipated. While he can come across money and he and his sister get rations, enough food is scarce and they’re forced to live in an abandoned shelter. Money and food run out on occasion and Setsuko seems to be getting sick. Seita cares for his sister very much and hates to see her like this. He can go back to the aunt, and is urged to do so on several occasions, but is too prideful to honestly consider it.

I don’t want to say more than that for fear of spoiling the movie. I will say that you shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that this is anime. It’s a very adult movie and really shouldn’t be watched by small children. I don’t recall much death being shown on screen, but there is some gore and the effects of war aren’t something that many children would be able to understand.

There are also certain subtleties that many children may miss. For instance, the aunt may seem like an overbearing foster parent when in reality, she has hard choices to make. Seita doesn’t work and doesn’t seem to think there’s much for him. When he agrees to let his mother’s kimonos be sold off for rice, he thinks that he’ll be entitled to a better share than he and his sister actually get. The aunt points out that she and her husband contribute to the household and society whereas the two siblings don’t. As an adult, you can understand the aunt’s point of view.

If you think that animation is for children, this is a great movie to break you of that belief. Grave of the Fireflies is not only great animation, it’s a great movie. I’d say it’s even top-10 material. I’d give it five stars.

IMDb page

Flightplan (2005)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning: I’m going to give away some spoilers. I’m not giving away the ending and I’m certainly not giving away that much. However, if you’re not into hearing too many details, don’t read this review just yet.


I remember seeing the coming attractions for flight plan. Mother and daughter are traveling on a plane. The mother, played by Jodie Foster, falls asleep and awakens to find the daughter missing. Since they’re on a plane and no parachutes are missing, the mother is left to assume that the daughter is still on the plane. That’s about all the trailers revealed.

After seeing the trailers, I had to wonder how they could fill almost two hours of film based on just that. Part of the movie deals with why Kyle (the mother) and Julia (the daughter) are on the plane. It turns out that the father died, apparently having killed himself by jumping off of the roof of an apartment building. The bulk of it has to do with what exactly happened.

This is why I’m warning you about the spoilers. I can’t really write an honest review without giving away at least some of the details. For starters, the insanity card is played way too early to be what really happened. Even though you know she’s not crazy, you have to wonder just a little bit. After Kyle discovers Julia missing, she finds (the hard way) out who the air marshal is. The air marshal later informs Kyle that she’s actually transporting two coffins, one of which is for her daughter. There’s no record of Julia having been on board. He even provides evidence that she picked up two bodies from the coroner before leaving.

Kyle starts seeing conspiracies everywhere. There are two passengers who are of Middle-Eastern origin who Kyle swears were looking at her from an apartment across the street. Also, she makes a point to tell the captain that two members of the flight crew weren’t exactly trying that hard when everyone was supposed to be looking for Julia.

You do eventually realize that something major is going on. It actually takes a while to figure out what, though. The writers did a good job of stretching out the story. When I first walked out of the theater, I thought to myself that I had just wasted $6.50 of my hard-earned money, but I began to think and I realized that there really was more to it than that. (Which is why I’m withholding a lot of the details.)

There were two major problems that I had with the story. First, I found it very convenient that no one saw Julia get on. Given that we’re talking about a plane with two floors of seats and a good-sized crew, not one person could corroborate that Kyle had gotten on with someone. The second point was that the whole thing with the Middle-Eastern passengers didn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t really mean anything that they happened to be across the street. Plus, they had an alibi for that night, which was never fully checked out.

The entire story seemed to be one of convenience. Things just happened the way that they needed to happen in order for there to be a two-hour movie. What would have happened if someone had been able to definitively say that they saw Julia? I’m going to give the movie four stars. Despite the complaints, the movie was at least entertaining. I’m going to have to see this movie again, just to be able to pick up on things that I didn’t see before. 

IMDb page

Project Almanac (2015)

Sometimes, reviewing a movie is easy if it tends towards the extreme.  Even if it’s really bad, that’s something to work with.  What do you do with a mediocre movie?  What do you do with a movie that doesn’t do anything really well?  Project Almanac looked like it had promise.  It was about an MIT hopeful named David and his friends finding a time machine.  I know.  What could go wrong?  It turns out, quite a lot.

The first half of the movie is basically a way of dropping names while trying to get the thing to work and subsequently testing their new Temporal Displacement Device.  You have all the obligatory Terminator/Doctor Who/Back to the Future/whatever references.  They even throw in a Timecop reference for good measure.  Ok.  I can buy that.  (I would have gone with Timecrimes.  But that’s just me.)

At this point, the movie can go one of two ways.  One way is to make history better.  One of the friends says that they have to kill Hitler.  Everyone who has ever invented a time machine knows this.  Instead, they go the other way and try to make their own lives better.  This includes, but is not limited to, winning the lottery.  This is understandable.  David gets into MIT, but doesn’t get the accompanying financial aid that he wanted.

You’d think that it would end there, but they decide to go to Lollapalooza once David gets the device working.  They can go back pretty far, but David knows he can do better.  This is mostly because the movie is predicated upon him and his sister finding a recording of his seventh birthday in which his seventeen-year-old self is seen in a reflection.  This also happens to be the night that their father died.

This raises several interesting questions.  If he was able to go back in time, was he not able to prevent his father’s death?  Why is his shirt stained?  If he knows he’ll be wearing a stained shirt, why not bring a clean one?  The one I was asking was how such an old video camera still had a charge right out of the cardboard box it was sitting in.  David is seventeen, meaning it had been sitting there for ten years.

The problem with using a convention, like time travel or found footage, is that it’s very difficult to add anything to it.  Many movies address meeting yourself, but there are only so many ways you can do this.  You also either have a fixed universe or one with many timelines.  Also, found footage was new and interesting once.  Very few movies have been able to do it well and those that did were ones that didn’t rely on it.  (Lunopolis and The Europa Report are the two I remember liking.)

Neither time travel nor found footage is anything new insofar as movies go.  I found Project Almanac to be a cross between The Butterfly Effect and The Blair Witch Project.  You have five teenagers going around, making a mess of history that they have to undo, and adhering to one rule:  Record everything.  The movie doesn’t really do anything well.  In fact, this is what’s notable to me.  I was entertained for two hours, but I came away from the movie not wanting to recommend it to anyone.  It’s not the kind of movie where I’ll be talking to someone about movies and ask if they’ve seen this.  If you can get it streaming through Netflix, fine.  If not, don’t bother


IMDb page

Timecop (1994)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning:  I’m going to give away major details.  I have to do this to properly review the movie.  If you don’t like spoilers, now’s a good time to stop reading.



One of the big questions with time travel is what you would do with it.  Would you go back and kill Hitler?  Would you give yourself the winning lottery numbers?  If you really screwed something up, would you go back and warn yourself about it?  The big question in Timecop is what would you do about it.

The movie starts with someone stealing some Confederate gold.  Yes, that Confederate, as in the American Civil War.  Cut to the present (in this case, 1994) where you have three people telling some senators that time travel has just been invented.  You can’t go to the future because it hasn’t happened yet, but you can go to the past.  This is tricky because there’s no telling what would happen if, say, someone were to go back and kill Hitler before he killed millions of people.  Who knows what effect those millions of people would have on history?

Instead of sweeping it under the rug, it’s proposed that a commission be set up to police the timeline and prevent someone from doing serious harm.  It’s called the Time Enforcement Commission.  Senator McComb gets himself appointed to oversee it.

Max Walker is a pretty good police officer and husband.  He’s considering a job with the new Time Enforcement Commission, much to his wife’s dismay.  As Max is leaving his house one day, he’s beaten up and left for dead by some thugs.  Max looks up to see his wife still inside the house with McComb behind her.  Before he can go in and help, the house explodes, taking her with it.

Ten years later, Max is working for the TEC.  He has to go back and get his former partner, who has gone back to take advantage of the Great Depression.  The plan is that he can buy stock really, really cheap so that his benefactor can make tons of money in 2004.  When Walker asks who that is, the former partner says that it’s McComb.  The plan is to use the money for a presidential bid.  Walker wants him to testify, but he refuses, saying that McComb will kill his grandparents.

When McComb arrives at TEC headquarters to give a tour to a new senator on the oversight committee, McComb asks Walker about his latest mission.  Walker is smart enough not to outright accuse McComb of what he’s done, but they each know what the other knows.

Walker gets to go back on a second mission where he finds the McComb of 2004 trying to kill a former business associate from 1994 at a crucial point.  He succeeds and changes history for the worse.  When Walker goes back, he finds the TEC all but shut down.  He convinces his boss to let him go back one more time to set things right.  As you might expect from a time-travel movie, especially one that has a sequel, Walker not only sets things straight, but he manages to save his wife, as well.

The thing about time-travel movies is that there’s either something that you can’t explain or something that you miss entirely.  In this case, I never understood the cancellation effect that happens when a present-day object touches it’s counterpart from the past.  It’s stated that an object can’t occupy the same space as its former self.  This is used to kill McComb.

I have three problems with this.  First, you’re literally not the same person you were ten years ago.  You’ve consumed and digested a lot of food and drink, breathed a lot of air and a good portion of your body, like hair and nails, has come and gone.  Secondly, the clothes seem to be included in this.  I doubt that McComb is wearing the same socks, the same shoes, the same underwear and so on.  Third, we do go through a lot of oxygen.  What happens if we carry back a molecule of oxygen that happens to interact with its past self?  Does that oxygen nullify itself?  Make enough trips back and you’ll deplete the atmosphere.

Another thing that’s never explored is where the time vehicles go.  To get to the past, a passenger is put into a vehicle.  Passenger and vehicle go forward along a track and eventually disappear.  The passenger arrives somewhere, but there’s no mention of the vehicle until the passenger returns, at which point the vehicle reappears.  Maybe someone came up with something that got cut from the final version.  I’m just curious.

The movie is entertaining, but could be better.  It’s one of those movies that has intricacy, but leaves a few obvious holes.  There are cases where the effects of interference never manifests.  There are cases where the effects are profound.  There are cases where the effects are pretty good.  There are cases where the use of green screen is fairly obvious.  While I’d recommend watching it, I don’t know that I’d recommend running out to get it.  Instead, I’d recommend it only if it comes on TV or if you can get it as part of a package deal. 

IMDb page

Doctor Who (1996)

The original Doctor Who ran for 26 seasons.  When it ended in 1989, a lot of people were disappointed.  In 1996, hope arrived in the form of a TV movie/backdoor pilot that aired on Fox, brought to us by Universal Television, BBC Worldwide and the Fox Network.  It starts with Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, transporting the remains of his mortal enemy, The Master, back to their home planet for interment.  He crash lands on Earth and is promptly shot.

Rather than die, he regenerates.  He is the same person with the same memories, but has a different appearance.  He’s now played by Paul McGann.  Over the course of the movie, The Doctor has to stop The Master from destroying Earth.  Both The Doctor and The Master have help.  Of course, since this was supposed to be the start of a new TV series, we can assume that The Doctor saves the day.

When the movie first aired, I remember liking it.  I think this may have been because it was the first new material in such a long time.  My only access to the show was the reruns on PBS.  Here was something I could actually watch new.  I was even a little disappointed that nothing ever came of it.  When I saw that I could rent the movie through Netflix, I decided to give it a second look.

I don’t think that this would have been a worthy successor to the original series.  It had a different feel and was probably made to appeal to both American and British audiences.  Judging by the fact that it wasn’t picked up, it probably failed on both counts.  I suspect that a good deal of that had to do with too many hands in the pot.  You had three production companies, each making their own demands and trying to serve two audiences.  When a new show was eventually produced, it was produced solely by the BBC.

The movie also seems a bit light on the story, probably because it was meant to bring Americans up to speed.  Yes, some of us had seen the show, but not everyone watches PBS.  This was well before Netflix or Redbox.  It would have cost you a fortune to get all those VHS tapes from Blockbuster.  They had to get across a lot of information in short order, like Time Lords having two hearts and 13 lives.  The movie ultimately got pulled in too many directions.

I suppose every franchise has one or two entries that fans would sooner forget.  Star Trek fans make fun of the odd-numbered movies.  I heard that James Cameron wasn’t fond of some of the Terminator sequels.  (He considers Genesys to be a direct true sequel to Terminator 2.)  Highlander II: The Quickening is disavowed by some fans.  This may be the weak link in the Doctor Who universe.  (I don’t recall it being mentioned much in the new series, but that may have more to do with rights and clearances.)

Ultimately, it worked out well.  Christopher Eccleston took over the role in 2005.  Several other actors have taken over the role since then.  The show has been going strong since then and we have a Christmas Special to look forward to each year.  It would be interesting to see what happens in another 50 years.

IMDb page

Snickers Marathon Long Lasting Energy Bar

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinuons account.

I got one of these bars on a whim. I know it’s supposed to be for those that are athletic, but I was getting tired of the candy bars. After all, I do walk a lot and that has to count for something. I don’t get these bars that often, mostly because of the cost. They usually go for somewhere in the neighborhood of $2, making them too expensive for a snack.

I’ve found that the wrapper is difficult to get off. For some reason, the wrapper sticks to bar. I’ve never had any trouble with the material staying on the bar, but I do have to peel it off slowly. I could see someone trying to open one of these after working out for a while and simply not wanting to be bothered.

It’s also tough to eat. It tastes good, but it’s very dense. It’s difficult to chew. It’s not extremely hard, but it’s not like gum, either. I think if I had a lot of dental work other than fillings, I’d worry about something popping out.

As for the taste, it doesn’t do much for me. I found both of the flavors available to me to be very similar. I think this is one of those things like Gatorade that change once you’ve been exercising for a while. The most exercise I do is walking, which hardly causes me to break a sweat.

It’s almost like eating some sort of processed and condensed Snickers bar. It actually looks and tastes like a Snickers bar that’s been distorted and messed around with. At least I didn’t see any hydrogenated oils. I really think it was meant for someone who exercises a lot.

I haven’t seen these available recently, but I haven’t been looking. It’s something that I’ll see and think about, but not really buy. It’s just not the kind of thing I want to snack on. I guess I’m going to have to keep looking for a healthier candy bar.

Snickers Chocolate Bars

Note:  This Review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


I came across a few candy bar reviews and remembered all of the good times I had had with all of those candy bars. I usually got 3 Musketeers, but I also liked Milky Way and Butterfinger. I think I ate enough of these in high school and college to fill several vending machines. One of my favorites was Snickers.

It’s been a while since I had a Snickers bar. There had come a point where candy bars weren’t quite as satisfying as they once were. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like sugar as I had just moved on to other sugar-laden things, like jelly beans. When I was recently in the checkout aisle at the grocery store, there I was looking at one longingly. I remembered the chocolate, the caramel, the peanuts… Why not? It’s not like I have enough cavities.

I guess once you get past the ingredients, there’s not much to say. Notice how many candy reviews are short and consist of nutritional information. There are two reasons for this. One is that candy bars are mostly a matter of taste. The other is that they’re not health food. It should be mentioned that they contain sugar and other things your dentist and/or doctor wouldn’t want you to eat.

Snickers is one of the more satisfying candy bars out there. Maybe it’s the peanuts. Maybe it’s the caramel. I could also be imagining things. Sugar does that to you sometimes, especially when combined with hunger. However, among my friends that like candy bars, I don’t think I know anyone that doesn’t like one. Sure, we all have our preferences, but most people like Snickers on some level.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it just has a nice consistency to it. When you bite into it, you’re getting a fair amount of resistance and I think that I respond well to it. I’m thinking that I’ve got a substantial piece of candy in my mouth and I’m not going to be hungry for a while.

As I said, it’s not to be a replacement for ‘real’ food. Among candy bars, Snickers definitely ranks up there in the top five. It’s also commonly available. Pretty much any vending machine or convenience store should have one. I’d look to pay maybe 50?-75? for a regular bar. Anything more than $1 is overpriced.

Skor Bars By Hershey's

Note:  This review was originally posted to m Epinions account.

I generally don’t like crunchy stuff.  This is why I’ve never been a big fan of toffee.  Every few years, I get a Skor bar because I forget just how hard toffee is.  I’m not even sure who carries it.  The last time I saw one was in an Office Max, which is a bit overpriced on candy to begin with.  (I’d imagine you can get it whoever you get candy, although Chuckles has shown me that this isn’t always true.)

For those that don’t know what toffee is, imagine frozen caramel.  (Every time I see Skor, I mistakenly think it’s filled with caramel.)  It has a similar flavor, but is extremely hard.  For those that have never seen a Skor, imagine a small bar of toffee covered in chocolate.  They’re thin and on the small side.  Despite the size, it’s pretty rare that I can get through one of these without my teeth hurting a little.

If you have any sort of dental problem where you can’t handle hard food, stay away from Skor.  It really is very hard toffee.  Generally, I’d prefer a Twix.  The cookie isn’t as hard and it does actually have caramel.  Then again, candy and candy bars tend to be subject to personal preferences.  Some people like hard candy while others don’t.

I don’t recall exactly when I first had a Skor, but I remember Skor candy bars being around for a while.  I think it’s been available in the Miami area at least as long as I’ve been around.  I’m sure there are enough people around that like it that it’s not going anywhere.

The price is usually consistent with other candy bars.  (The price-to-size ratio is another reason I go for other candy bars.)  Chocolate and toffee is pretty simple, but I’d check the ingredient list anyway.  I’m going to skip the nutritional information, only because it’s so easy to find online and on the package.  Overall, I have to give it 2 stars.

Harry and the Hendersons (1987)

As a child, well before everyone had a decent camera in their phone, I thought it impossible that a creature like Bigfoot could go unnoticed.  You’d think with humanity constantly encroaching on every corner of the planet, someone would have found a Bigfoot community or something.  All we have are a few fuzzy photographs and vague molds of footprints of what people claim are the hairy cryptoid.  Yes, new species are discovered all the time, but nothing as big as this.  Thus, it comes as a surprise when the Henderson family hits one with their car.  Twice.

The father, George, gets out and assumes that the creature is dead.  The only thing to do is take Bigfoot home and see what their options are.  No easy task, considering how big Bigfoot is.  George Henderson is played by John Lithgow.  Lithgow is a tall guy at 6' 4".  Bigfoot is taller.  Bigfoot is played by Kevin Peter Hall, who stood 7' 2½".  This makes it hard to lift him onto the car, to say nothing of where they’ll put him when they get home.

When Bigfoot wakes up, he goes through the house and destroys a good portion of it.  He also tries to bury George’s hunting trophies in the back yard.  It takes a while for the Hendersons to realize that Bigfoot isn’t that dangerous.  They decide to let him stay, even calling him Harry.  They eventually realize that Harry has to go back; he has no place in a major city.  Dr. Wallace Wrightwood is willing to help once he realizes that Harry does exist.  Jacques Lafleur, however, is hot on Harry’s trail and will stop at nothing to get his prize.

The movie is generally safe for older children.  Harry goes from being frightened and defensive to sweet and friendly pretty early on, so any really scary scenes will be in the beginning of the film.  Much of the humor is slapstick, though.  Harry is every bit as clumsy as you’d expect, which is understandable.  He’s out of his element.  George teaches Harry to sit.  When Harry does sit, it’s often with destructive consequences, like destroying a table or putting a hole in the floor.

There’s also the moral dilemma.  George sees dollar signs, but the rest of the family sees him as a living creature.  George eventually comes around, realizing the he’s not even sure who to turn Harry over to.  Is it fair to make money off of a living creature, especially knowing that they’d be poked and prodded?  The alternative is to keep him trapped in a house that’s too small for him and hope they can find food for him.  It doesn’t help that neighbors would likely not understand.

Interestingly, they did make this into a TV sitcom.  I never saw it, but I do vaguely recall hearing about it.  I actually ran for 72 episodes over three seasons.  I’m assuming that the show would have used a plot similar to ALF, in that Harry would have been confined to the house.  I might check that out if it ever comes on Netflix.  One thought crossed my mind while watching the movie, though:  What would have happened if Syfy had gotten their hands on the script?


IMDb page

Hoyle Casino Series for Mac, Windows

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I found out about this game from a friend. He was playing Texas Hold ‘Em and I was complaining that he folded too easily. I decided to give it a try. Each player can make their own profile. There’s a face maker you can use to make a picture that resembles you or you can use one of several pictures that the computer already has. The face maker also has the ability to randomly generate faces, but these tend to be bizarre. Since I wasn’t planning on using my friend’s computer forever, I just used one of the faces the computer had.

The computer set me up with $5,000 in credit so that I could play any of the games in the casino. (Hoyle Casino 2004 is more than just Texas Hold ‘Em, but I’ll get to that later.) I was able to try the Texas Hold ‘Em and show him how I played it. I ended up losing a little money, but as I said, I wasn’t playing for keeps so it didn’t really matter. It’s not like it was real money anyway.

I tried a few of the other games and decided to get this game for myself. I didn’t really bother with the face maker. It was way too complicated and I didn’t like any of the random faces. I found a face that sort of kind of looked similar to me and used that. For a while, I stuck to roulette and Texas Hold ‘Em because those were the two games that I was most familiar with. I occasionally tried the slots, but didn’t do to well. I went back to Texas Hold ‘Em. Eventually, I decided to try some of the other games. There are a lot of different forms of poker in Hoyle Casino 2004 as well as a lot of different slot machines and other games. There’s keno, craps, black jack, Baccarat, and many other games that I hadn’t heard of before. It even has horse racing.

Most people that I know that have a game like this seem to stick to one or two games. (My friend and I aren’t exceptions.) If you’re get bored easily, but don’t really want to bother learning the rules to a new game, Hoyle Casino 2004 has a tutorial for each game. What you take away from this depends on how easily you learn. The instructions may not always be clear, especially for a game you’ve never even heard of before. Keno and craps were totally alien to me and thus difficult to really understand. I know how to bet and everything, but I still don’t understand how craps really works.

If you get bored of just playing poker game after poker game and want more of a challenge, you can play tournaments. Most of the poker games have tournaments that last several rounds. You and several competitors play 14 hands. The three best move on to play 28 hands. From there, two advance to play as many hands as are necessary for there to be one person left. If you think that the poker tournaments are too long, then you’re in luck. You do have the option to save the tournament whenever a dialogue box comes up. Just leave the game and it’s automatically saved. Most of the other games have tournaments. Roulette is set up with one round and isn’t really as satisfying or challenging as the Texas Hold ‘Em tournament is.

If and when you do decide to leave, you get shown an advertisement for other games. It’s brief, but annoying. I find it to be kind of cheap. I think it’s a lot better to integrate the ads into the game so that they’re not as noticeable.

Ultimately, I find myself usually going back to Roulette or Texas Hold ‘Em. This isn’t to say that the program is bad. I think it could be enjoyable for just about anyone who likes to play, but doesn’t like having to constantly drop money on gambling.

I’d give this four stars.

Monopoly Board Game

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinins account.

There was a catchphrase or slogan I heard once:  Easy to learn, difficult to master.  Monopoly definitely fits that bill.

It's a relatively easy game to learn.  You have a square board with a variety of properties as well as Free Parking, Jail, Go to Jail, Go and the Chance and Community Chest spaces.  You also have two dice and several game pieces to represent the players.  You go around the board by rolling the dice.

If you land on property that's unowned, you can buy it.  If someone else owns it, you have to pay rent.  (The amount of rent depends on several factors, which I'll get to later.)  If you run out of money, you can mortgage your properties.  If you run out of property to mortgage, you lose.  If you run out of opponents, you win.

If you land on one of the Chance or Community Chest spaces, you take a card that tells you what to do.  You might get money or lose money.  You might have to go to Jail or you might get a Get out of Jail Free card.  They can add another random element to the game.

There are variations.  For instance, you can deal out all of the property at the start.  Free Parking can simply be a space where you do nothing or a space where you can get money.  (Some people use a set amount while others put any tax money in the center and use that as a pot.)  When you pass Go, you usually get $200.  Some people let you collect twice as much if you actually land on Go.

I would say that 90% of the game is random, as the dice are the sole determinant of how you move.  You don't get to chose direction.  You can't pass.  You just do what the dice tell you to do.  Thus, you have no real control over which property you land on.

For this reason, I've found the game to be very frustrating.  As I mentioned before, rent is controlled by several factors.  Properties are divided into groups.  You have railroads, utilities and 8 color groups.  Rent on the railroads goes up the more you own.  The rent on utilities goes up if you own both.  Rent on any given color group doubles if you own the entire set.

Also, if you own an entire color group, you can put improvements on the properties.  This is why Boardwalk and Park Place have become somewhat well known.  If someone has both properties and has done the maximum improvements, they can charge $2000 in rent to someone that lands on boardwalk.  (If I recall, that is.  I haven't played in a while.)

I've found that it's very easy to spiral downwards because you can't charge rent on a mortgaged property.  Without any property to charge rent on, your only income will be passing Go and hopefully getting some income through Chance and Community Chest.  If all of your property is mortgaged, it becomes a matter of time before you land on something that takes you out of the game.  Conversely, if you own an entire side of the board or two, you'll just keep collecting money,

One of the reasons I've come to not like the game is that there's no real strategy.  Sure, there are things you can do that will help you a little.  For instance, don't sell or trade any properties to anyone unless you have to.  Especially don't give up any property that would give them a complete set of anything.  Also, if you wind up in Jail and the side of the board following Jail is owned by someone other than you, stay in Jail as long as possible.  There's no good reason to want to leave Jail unless you roll a twelve.  Other than that, it all comes down to a roll of the dice. 

The Beauty Inside/Byuti insaideu (2015)

Woo-jin has a distinct problem:  Every time he wakes up, he has a new body.  He could be young or old.  He could be a man or a woman.  He’s usually Korean, but he could be of any race or ethnicity.  He doesn’t have any control over what he’ll look like when he wakes up.  It starts on his 18th birthday, at which point his mother withdraws him from school.

Woo-jin is pretty much withdrawn in all other respects, as well.  He has a job designing furniture, which he can do without going out.  He has the help of a childhood friend, who accepts Woo-jin‘s condition.  Each night, Woo-jin goes home.  When he wakes up the next morning, he goes through a wide assortment of clothing to find something that fits.  He has a Brannock device to help with shoe size and another device for glasses, if he needs them.  He manages to get through each day just fine.

Then, he meets Yi-soo.  He falls in love with her, but can’t bring himself to ask her out.  It’s hard enough when you have the same body.  How would he explain to her that he’ll be a different person the next day?  He decides to at least try, hoping to stay awake the rest of his life.  That goes as well as you might expect.  She pushes him away at first, but comes to accept him for who he is.  She doesn’t seem to mind the different bodies.  Her biggest problem is knowing what he looks like.

This is where I thought the movie didn’t live up to its potential.  Woo-Jin does nothing to explore the new bodies that he has.  There’s no commentary on what it might be like to be a woman for the day, other than his friend awkwardly hitting on him.  Yi-soo doesn’t seem to have a problem with her boyfriend being a woman.  The main issue is that her coworkers think she’s kind of easy because she appears to have a new boyfriend every day.  This is really the only source of stress for her. If it was hard for him to approach her, it’s impossible for her to tell her friends and family.  There are a few scenes where Woo-jin goes home with someone, before he starts dating Yi-soo.  Even with this, his only imperative is leave before the woman wakes up.

There’s no mention of how or why Woo-jin gets different bodies.  We don’t actually see it happen, but Yi-soo does get to witness it once.  It also happens on a train and no one seems to notice, so we’re left to assume that it’s painless and inconspicuous.  The only constant is that there seem to be no permanent consequences.  He gets a tattoo that seems to disappear from subsequent bodies.  However, there’s no mention of him having broken bones or anything serious.  He never has missing limbs.  He never has any sort of medical or psychological condition.  The only thing he has to deal with is varying eye sight and shoe sizes.

He does record many of his new faces, mostly for himself.  I suppose it would have been possible for him to set up a camera to record a transformation or have his friend do it, at least so that he might have proof, but this is never brought up.  It’s not even mentioned in the context of not wanting to be tested by doctors.  For that matter, it’s never mentioned what he does for identification.  He drives, but I’m not sure what he did for a license.  He moves to the Czech Republic, but there’s no mention of what he does for his travel papers.  (It’s possible that he drives without a license or has some way of creating a new one for each face.  As for the passport, it’s also possible that he entered the country illegally.)

In many respects, the movie could have done more, even if it was only a little more.  The movie focuses primarily on the romance and associated difficulties between Woo-jin and Yi-soo.  Part of the issue for me might be that the movie is Korean.  I’m sure that there are cultural differences I’m not picking up on.  I spent a lot of the movie wondering if the changing bodies were supposed to be an analogy for something or if they were just supposed to be a unique obstacle for Woo-jin to have to deal with.  Is it supposed to be some sort of commentary on how people change in a relationship?  Is it supposed to show how difficult it is for men to approach women?  Or is it just supposed to make it harder for Woo-Jin to approach Yi-soo?

The movie is based on an American Web series that I seem to have missed.  I think that someone saw this and simply tried to get a feature-length film out of it.  It’s not a bad movie by any means.  It was just over two hours and didn’t drag at all.  It does make you wonder how you would handle having different bodies all the time.  Woo-jin seems to handle it well.  Ironically, Woo-jin makes custom furniture which he can never use, himself.



IMDb page