The Dark Knight

Since I suck at writing reviews and writing in general, I'm just going to touch on a few points that I loved about this movie and leave the writing up to those who are actually good at it:

# Harvey "Two-Face" Dent - Arron Eckhart played him to perfection. Everyone is talking "Heath Ledger" this and "Joker" that, but Dent is the real star of this movie. Above Batman/Bruce Wayne and above The Joker, The Dark Knight is really about Harvey Dent as the Gotham City DA who takes on the rampant crime and corruption in the city and follows him through his tragic fall from grace to the twisted killer "Two Face". Before he becomes Two Face, Harvey Dent is the true hero of Gotham, not Batman. Heath Ledger may be stealing the show with his also brilliant potrayl of The Joker, but Arron Eckhart deserves some major attention for his exemplary performance as well.
# The Joker - This is the one everone's talking about. Would Ledger have gotten as much attention for his take on The Joker if he had not sadly died shortly after finishing his role? Most definately, but it probably wouldn't be recieving quite so much attention. Still, Ledger absolutely disappears into The Joker. He plays him straight up fucking evil and terrifying. You never know what he's going to do next and it fills the whole movie with a constant sense of dread and unease that gets worse as it goes along. You never feel safe to let your guard down in Gotham City when The Joker is around. Every second he is on screen he commands your absolute attention and he'll get it. There's not much more I can say about this that hasn't been said by everyone else and probably said better by them so I'll just finish my thoughts on The Joker with these two words: Magic Trick.
# Christopher Nolan has created a superhero movie that is more than just a superhero movie. It is a deep and complex crime drama. The Dark Knight is more than just Man In Tights A beats up Bad Guys B, C and D, then blows up object E. The characters tha inhabit Christopher Nolan's vision of Gotham City are each deep and real in their own way. They jump off the screen, each with their own complex set of emotions and motivations that guide them through this world. Of course they wouldn't be as great without some awesome writing and superb performances from each and every actor here.
# I love how there is very little CGI in The Dark Knight and what is there is very subtle. Christopher Nolan's insistance on practical special effects (you know, stuff that's actually there as opposed to something crapped out of a computer) gives even more realism and believability to the world of Gotham City.

There's probably a few more awesome things about The Dark Knight that I've neglected to mention, but trust me, someone else probably did it better. In all, The Dark Knight is a magnificently crafted film that will stand the test of time as more than a superhero movie, but as an amazing piece of cinema history. Now I have to wait for the DVD.

Connor Rocks...

Been busy...

Like anyone reads this anyway. Oh well, like the title says, I've been busy. Thinks are all right with the exception that I don't have a car now. My wife, son and I were driving back from the Philadelphia Zoo today and we hit an old couple that ran a stop sign. It sucks, but the important thing is that we're all okay. Connor wasn't even scared. He was playing my DS and chatting with all the police, firemen and paramedics that showed up.

This upcoming week is going to be a major nerd-gasm for me. Besides The Dark Knight coming out, I'm excited about E3. I'm really looking forward to learning some new stuff about Resident Evil 5 among many other games I'm interested in. As for The Dark Knight, I've been following the progress of this movie forever and I'm almost literally vibrating in anticipation of it's release. I won't be able to see it until Saturday, but it will be worth it to see it on IMAX.

Actually, I think I may make The Dark Knight my first attempt at writing a movie review in years. We'll have to see how that goes. I can already tell you that the review is going to be positive.

That's all for now. I'm kinda tired and I'm distracted by some really bad horror movie on cable right now. Later...

http://www.engrish.com/

What the fuck is wrong with my dog?

This is my dog Nibbles:



That's an old pic of her, but she hasn't changed much and I'm too lazy to upload a newer one. Anyway, Nibbles has a disgusting habit. She eats nasty shit. When I say "shit" I actually mean "shit". I come home from work today and there's one of Connor's diapers torn open in the middle of the living room floor. It was a particularly nasty diarrhea diaper from the day before. Apparently, Nibbles got hungry and dug it out of the garbage can and ate anything that was coated in Connor's Hershey squirts. She also topped off her snack with a few choice nuggets from the cat box.

What the fuck? We give her perfectly good food, table scraps and plenty of treats. Why in the hell does she feel the need to eat, quite literally, crap? There's actually been times where I've been walking her and we pass up some random pile of dog shit and she sniffs it and sometimes, tries to eat it. Then she wants to be all affectionate and lick my hand or something soon afterward. Fucking eww!

Dumbass dog...


The Illustrated Catalog of Acme Products

What's the point of trash talking in online games?

I just don't get it. Why waste the effort? I just got done playing a few rounds of the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix Beta. I was playing some guy who did not fucking shut up the entire match. He kept up a constant stream of taunts and insutlts, which did no good because I still kicked his ass. I even got a perfect victory in the 2nd round and that still did not shut him up. He said I suck. Really? I'm the one still standing, you're laying on the ground unconscious and I'm the one that sucks?

Another similar incident happened the other night when I was playing some Free For All in Call of Duty 4 on my 360. Some guy got a decent kill on me and I said "Ooh! Good one!" and he responds with "Yeah, you like that just like your mom did." What the hell? Here I was trying to be nice and mature and that dick responds with that? What's the point? It didn't make me feel bad, it just baffled me. It didn't distract me to the point to where I couldn't play the game, I just muted him.

Why do people insist on doing this? I just don't understand. Sure, trash talking is kind of fun in the right circumstances. Like when you're in a room with a bunch of friends or you really did get a good victory, but even then, there's a freakin' limit. I have to admit that night I was playing CoD4 with some of my friends and we were all just saying "Dental plan! Lisa needs braces!" over and over again was fucking hysterical. There's a big difference between trash talking for fun and doing it just to be an obnoxious asshole and to piss people off.

Another thing that I don't get is why people get mad and start trash talking you when you're kicking their ass. It's not my fault you suck don't take it out on me. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of getting drawn into an argument with you over name calling. Although, I will admit that I take a special kind of joy in not uttering a peep against those kind of players as I continue to kick their asses and they keep getting more and more frustrated. If you're kicking my ass then I'm obviously doing something wrong. Sure, I get annoyed, but I don't go around calling everyone names and shit. I just buckle down and try to do better.

I'm not going to say much about the extremely annoying little kids on Live calling everyone fags and niggers and other crap like that. I'm just scared that they're the future of the world. What in the hell is an 8 year old doing playing Grand Theft Auto 4 online anyway? I don't try to be too restricting on what my kid watches/plays/listens to, but I'm sure as hell not going to let him play GTA4 until he's older. Even if I would let him play the game, if I caught him using language like that, it would be the end of him playing any kind of videogames for a long time.

I think my problem is that I expect too much from people on Xbox Live. I need to realize that 90% of the other players are douchebags and there's nothing I can do to change it so I should just accept it and enjoy playing with those who are fun to play with. I'll continue to compliment those who deserve it and even offer advice to those that need it and are willing to take it. Although, I don't know how qualified I am in the advice department. I'm not nearly as good as some of my buds on my XBL friends list. I am getting better at Call of Duty 4 though.

If anyone wants to play, my Gamertag is made of spam. I play Call of Duty 4 the most and I'll be getting Soul Calibur 4 when it drops in a few weeks. I also occasionally play Team Fortress 2 although it's been a while since I've played that. I would play Halo 3, but for some reason I just don't see the big deal over that game.

How is it that I like being a parent?

I am still surprised by how much I like being a parent. This is my kid:



His name is Connor and he's just over 2 years old. The kid is funny, sweet and oh so silly. I hate being away from him for too long and a day where I have to work long hours and don't get to see him at all is torture. He's very friendly and loves animals.



I honestly thought by now that I'd be a horrible dad and sick of the kid at this point. That couldn't be further from the truth though. I can't get enough of him. My day just isn't complete if I don't spend at least a half hour playing with him. I love it when he watches me play Rock Band and cheers when I finish a song. No matter how badly I play it, he has fun. It still baffles my mind that I'm a dad and I'm lucky enough to have this kick ass kid around.

Sure, there are plenty of times when it's difficult or when he gets on my nerves, but they're worth it. Nothing beats the feeling of watching his face light up when I pick him up from daycare after I get off work. No matter how bad a day I have, seeing the kid makes it all worth it.

Anyway, so far, being a parent is awesome. Thank you for reading all of that. Now to take the edge off all the sweet crap I just wrote, I give you this offensive, immature, disturbing, yet highly amusing to me video:

This 4th was boring...

I slept alot. We went to a dog park with Connor and the dog in the afternoon. KFC/Taco Bell fucked up my order. I'm going to play some Trapt ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapt_(video_game) ) later.

I watched Eastern Promises ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Promises )tonight. It was interesting. Not quite sure what to think about it yet, but I did like it.

I'm watching Grindhouse:Deathproof right now. I haven't watched it in a while, but I still like it. I forgot about my two favorite nonviolent things about the movie and they are as follows:





Anyway, that's it for now. I may post more later. Kinda wanna play my game actually.

http://www.tony-hawks.com/skateboarding.php