Articles by Derelict

Seems like it's been a while since I've shared my thoughts on a movie, but I'm thinking of getting back into it. This time it's for the 2013 Pixar movie Monsters University; the prequel to Monsters Inc.

I'm a little put off by the recent changes happening with YT copyright rules, in particular to what it means to posting videos that include game-play footage. I'm looking into getting a Vimeo account now, and even coming back to iPernity with a Club membership to boot. [EDIT] CRAP! Vimeo isn't a viable option either.

Here is just another of infititely available examples of why the English language is so complicated. I think the following setence makes perfect sense, and that is really weird: I had a Doctor's appointment today for which I had to fast but was so fast asleep that I woke up late, making me leave the house so fast that I forgot to make the door fast.

There are all these commercials, pictures, stories, and poems that show how hard a Mom's job is, and how valuable Mom is to the family. I googled "what would mom's salary really be" and got a link to show what Mom would earn if "Mom" was a job. I looked up "what would dad's salary really be" and the first three links are about paying child support and dead-beat dads. You've probably seen posts about how mom is a doctor, a teacher, a chauffeur and a cook. So all of that may be true, but…

It was one of those days where I thought of something funny and that made me smile... a huge smile. Then as I thought of it more, I started to laugh. Oh, and did I mention I was walking down the street by myself? So all these strangers around me are now doing a poor job of averting their eyes and wondering "Why did this lunatic just break out into laughter for no apparent reason? Will my life end at the hands of this crazy person?"

You have got to be kidding me. EA? EA is the worst? Unless EA has some kind of influence over the government, military contracts, or distribution of wealth between the top 1% and everyone else in America, I doubt they're the worst. They may be sleazy and greedy (maybe) but really? The worst? http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/04/04/ea-is-the-worst-company-in-america-now-what/ Banks have got the consumers so blinded by the crap they want but don't need that they've lost sight of…

A Canadian figure skating couple was on the news tonight. Don't take this as me saying that it doesn't take talent; all I'm saying is that to my untrained eye, every clip of every figure skating routine I've ever seen looks the same to me. Despite the costume differences, they all look like they're doing the same thing.

Attack the Block is a UK sci-fi alien invasion movie that I believe was done on a budget with many young actors that have (to my knowledge) no world-wide recognition. It was good. It's wasn't amazing or great, but it was good. And you know what? It was better than Skyline and it was better than Battle Los Angeles. It had it's over the top moments, but it had a lot of grounded and realistic moments as well. Nothing was particularly perfected in anything that was done, but nothing was poorly…

I realized recently that the number eight is the only number that people will preceed with the word "figure". People will say "how do you figure?" in reference to math, and they'll say "I need to see those figures" in references to numbers in general, but not a specific number. You never hear a teacher ask "Timmy, is that a figure 5 or a figure 6"? You never hear two guys saying "Hey Bob, let's do figure 3s in this car." "We can't Lou, the road is too narrow; we'll only be able to do figure 1…

I think my wife summed this movie up perfectly by saying "It's Twilight with super heroes and aliens instead of vampires and werewolves." There's not a whole lot to say outside of that. Overall, I didn't really enjoy this movie; I think the reason is that I am the wrong target audience. It's filled with the classic teen-movie moments sprinkled with super-powered-alien beings. But all of the coming-to-full-potential part of this guy exploring his powers gets buried under trite coming-of-a…

Movie Moment - Transformers: Dark of the Moon I seem to remember people coming down hard on Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but now that I've seen it I'm not entirely sure why. It may be that those that have followed a particular story-line in the franchise's history were upset of some of the choices made film. Myself, I don't really care about any of the deviations, and probably couldn't point out 90% of them anyway. The movie does follow the typical, cookie-cutter, summer action movie fo…

In my experience, there's a good chance that if a movie is based on a Phillip K Dick short story it will be at least good, if not great. The Adjustment Bureau is no exception, and falls somewhere in between those ratings.

I've seen eight movies in the past six weeks, which is quite a lot compared to how many movies I usually watch. Here's a quick run down!

As a Canadian, I expect to contribute to Harper's pay check. I expect to buy his groceries and pay his cable bill. I even expect to help pay for him and his family to take trips and have outings that the average ordinary Canadian family would take. However, I do not believe that the average Canadian family hops on a plan to the U.S. just to watch hockey a game .

Not unlike Jack & the Beanstalk , I was reading The Gingerbread Man to my kids recently. We have about 3 different versions of the story in the house. Here's a breakdown of what usually happens. A gingerbread man is made, but then takes off and teases anyone that tries to catch him. The baker who spent the time making the gingerbread man is the first to be outrun by the little food item no matter how hard he or she (depending on which version your reading) runs. Eventually the gingerbread man…

I was reading Jack and the Beanstalk to my kids, not too long ago. Every time I read it I think about what a terrible story it really is. Some kid breaks into a guy's house and starts to steal all his stuff. After the 3rd time, the giant comes chasing after the little thief (totally understandable) and ends up getting killed. Meanwhile sticky-hands and his overly-critical mother (who never seems to care how her son is pulling in all this loot) lives happily ever after. What kind of message is th…

I heard Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" not too long ago. Every time I hear it I think of playing Burning Rubber (aka Bump'n'Jump) on the Commodore 64, as that was the song that played in that game. Sadly, this is true for more areas of historic art, culture, and music. Ride of the Valkyries and the Barber of Seville? Tell me you don't think of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

I saw the movie "Predators" on the weekend. I was looking forward to seeing it, but not walking in with high expectations. I'm a fan of the original Predator movie, and I even liked the 2nd one. Aliens Vs. Predator, the Predator: Concrete Jungle game, and almost anything Predator related is likely to have at least some level of coolness for me. The latest movie felt like the biggest budget fan-movie ever made to pay homage to another movie. There was enough that was different about it to make…