Reviews and other musings...

This past week I watched to new season premiers, Bionic Woman and Life. I already fear for Bionic Woman as it is just a ripoff of Dark Angel from several years ago. Girl with extraordinary powers and gifts is hunted by a government agency. And that show was a ripoff of The Pretender. So while it has good looking young women, it is not new nor interesting. I feel it deviates from the original story line too much. It is too easy to have these nano-bots that heal and cure her. Not enough imagination has been put into this show. I give it five episodes before it will be pulled. On the other hand, I had some good vibes about life. While it is another cop show, making him rich and a victim searching for answers does give it a twist. I think if they keep the story lines interesting it can succeed. Shark is back for another season and it not the best show out there so why not this one.. The Dallas Cowboys sure looked strong again today. I am worried about their slow starts but the finishes are something else. New England in two weeks is shaping up to be quite a showdown and also a test of just how good this team really can be. Even if they lose to the Patriots, if it is a good, tight game it will prove they belong in the same breath. But I fully expect them to win.

Movie review and other musings...

Last night I watched the Viggo Mortensen film "A History of Violence" and my feelings are mixed. While the action seemed to move at a fast enough pace, I felt it did not delve deep enough into Tom/Joey's past. Two top rate actors, William Hurt and Ed Harris had star billing but their screen time was rather limited. Of the two, Ed Harris certainly turned out the better performance. William Hurt, with his limited time was just too over the top, as if to make sure that no one would forget that he was even in the film. Ed Harris on the other hand, convincingly portrayed someone that had no problem shooting you dead where you stand regardless of sex, age, or amount of cash on you. Viggo did his part good, at first being the devoted husband to a hot wife, good father to a couple of good kids and then in an instant he was Joey, the cold blooded killer without a conscience. In closing I would have like 20 more minutes of the movie with an explanation of what brought Tom/Joey to the present. I think a scene where he and Maria Bello were just laying in bed with him telling the story with flashbacks of his past would have worked very well. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Had lunch today with my parents and daughter. My daughter is doing ok today but it is a day to day thing. She just got through selling her stereo for some drug money but she knows that within a week or so she is going to enter drug rehab. I hope it does her some good. It was nice to see her as I do miss her very much. But until she has a handle on her life she really does not need to be coming around my place. I have very little in this world, I want to hang on to what I have. ---------------- Now playing: Art Of Noise - Moments In Love via FoxyTunes

Outside...

Having been an outsider most of my life has, for the most part, been a lonely experience. But recently I have realized, that while I really don't like the feelings of loneliness, there is something that I can do with it. As an outsider, I have developed the skill of observing others. When I combine observation with memories of events and situations from my past I am able to construct a mental picture of how things should have been done and how they should be done. Something I have come to believe is that for the most part we are no different than a colony of ants. We scurry about our little lives oblivious to what is around us. Sure, we see what is on the news, we say that is terrible, and then we move on because we have other things to do. Why are we so pathetic in doing this? No matter what we do, how much we earn or what we live for we are all going to die. Unlike the ants which live for the promotion of their kind, we attempt to live for ourselves. We do not worry about what is best for our species, we worry what is best for our shareholders. I am as guilty as anyone and I make no excuses, I simply state my opinion regarding the human race. The ice pack is melting and all the shipping companies can think of is how to exploit the northwest passage so they can save some money on shipping. Why are we not putting more resources into finding other ways to manufacture what we want and need and less into finding cheaper ways of getting the stuff to us. I have digressed from my original point I was trying to make. Making money is fine, that is what our country was founded on and it is a good thing as long as greed does not become the driving force behind making that money. When is enough money enough? Does the person make 1 million dollars a year have to have the 10,000 sf home? Or can they have a much smaller home that uses less electricity and therefore does not cause a brownout in the summer that causes the poor person to die from heatstroke because they cannot turn on their fan? again I digress, getting on my pulpit for issues that are for another time. I observe much going on in our world and it is not good. I see the people making the left turns, their cell phones glued to their ears, not paying attention that they just ran a red light. Daily I see people run red lights and I wonder how they will feel when they eventually hit someone and kill their child? I watched a video on the internet of a woman trying to beat a train and not realizing that another train was coming in the other direction. Two of her three children died and it was all due to greed. Greed is not just about money. It is about wanting something so bad that you will have it regardless of who it hurts or destroys. When that guy has to go around me to my left and then change back hard to my lane to make the right hand turn when he could have just as easily stayed behind me, made the turn and then passed me, that is greed. It is a sin. Pride is another sin that I am struggling with. I am 42 years old and when I see a person older than sporting some kind of colors, in this case a harley davidson jacket while sitting on his bike, it makes me wonder. Is it really ok, at our age, be have pride in something you enjoy? How much pride can you have before it becomes a sin? Is pride not a sin? I realized that I feel so down because of the situations in my life that I do not allow myself to feel pride in anything I do, whether it is my work, my role as a husband, father, son. I try to do well at all of these things and yet I feel to take pride in a job well done would be boastful since I have not succeeded as well as I would have liked at any of them. There are so many things that I now realize my parents were just trying to do for themselves when I was a child and teen and they needed my help and yet all I could think of was myself and going to play basketball with my friends. Is that my fault for not having more respect? Or is it their fault for not being more disciplined on me? I am not sure of the answer but I do know it bothers me now. If I had been less in need of companionship I would not have exposed my daughter to the pain she was caused and therefore she may not be how she is now. I did not put her first and now I suffer along with her. The difference is she does not realize she is suffering nor how much she will in the future. She is too busy getting high to worry about that. I only pray and hope she figures it out before it is too late. Husband, I try to be a good husband but I feel I fail miserably at times.

Movie review...

Well, I finally watched the classic movie "Taxi Driver" with Robert Di Niro, Cybill Shepherd, and Jodi Foster. With everything I had heard about it over the years it turned out to not be what I expected nor as good as I expected. The movie really seemed to drag on and was very droll. The plot was very easy to follow and I understood what it was about, there just did not seem to be much excitement. The last five minutes stood out but that is not saying much. Also, I have heard so much about Jodie Foster's portrayal of the child prostitute but I was very disappointed. She hardly had a part in the movie and not much acting was put into it. I gave it three stars out of five on the Netflix meter. I am glad I finally saw it and it was good, just not what I thought it would be with all they hype.