The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

So I didn't know much about True Grit before going in. I saw the trailer once and it didn't tell me too much. All I knew was that: a.) it was a western, b.) that Jeff Bridges looked totally bad-ass as a one-eyed marshall, and c.) it was a movie done by the Coen brothers. I knew not of the story or much else, but I was sold on all those 3 points. True Grit follows the story of a young girl named Mattie Ross who seeks vengeance for her father's murder, a killer by the name of Tom Cheney (Josh Brolin). In tracking him down, she enlists the help of a drunken US Marshall (Jeff Bridges), reputed for being the toughest Marshall in the territory, as well as a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon). The band tracks Chaney down in the Indian territories, but are continually hindered by each other's presence ie. by constantly doing the equivalent of comparing their penis size. The movie is nothing short of amazing, if anything, for the performances of the main players. Jeff Bridges and Haile...

Rottentomatoes isn't always the greatest indicator of when a movie is good. Case in point, Unstoppable . Currently, it's sitting pretty with 86% positive reviews. However, that's a deceiving number. If say, 9 out of 10 reviews gave the movie a marginal thumbs up, it would end up looking like a 90% on RT. Deceiving. However, referencing RT and Metacritic will give a fairer look at the critical reviews. MC gives an aggregate score based on professional reviews, which may give a better gauge on how a certain piece of entertainment is doing. On MC, Unstoppable garnered a 69. I think that's a lot more fair than 86%. Unstoppable is a film by Tony Scott featuring frequent collaborator, Denzel Washington, and the new Captain Kirk himself, Chris Pine. It's as you've seen it in the trailers; there's a runaway train, there's Washington, there's Pine, and they try to stop it. Whatever you think would happen probably did. It's one of those sort of ...

When I got home on Friday night after seeing Black Swan, I texted my friend whom I went to see it with. I was thinking about the array of films that director Darren Aronofsky has undertaken in his film career. I texted my friend, “I don’t think it’s possible for Aronofsky to make a feel-good movie”. It makes you wonder, because as of right now, he’s attached to make the next Wolverine movie. So will it be an arthouse Wolverine movie? An existential look at everybody’s favourite mutant? So Black Swan is not a feel-good type of movie, but it is a brilliant one. The story follows an aspiring ballet dancer named Nina (Natalie Portman) who toils herself in winning the lead role in a ballet called Swan Lake. The lead role requires the dancer to take on two different styles; one representing the White Swan, who dances gracefully and perfectly, the other, representing the Black Swan, who is a more passionate and seductive character. Nina perfectly portrays the White, but has difficulty...

It's been well over a month since my last post, and I was about to post a review of Final Fantasy XIII , but I thought it’d be more appropriate to do a life update rather than a geek update… although, I am a geek, so I guess this is sort of a geek update. It’s been over two months since I started working full time and I think I’m starting to see the life balance. I lamented in a post in October that time seemed to move quick and that there wasn’t any downtime. Since then, I’ve taken a more intentional approach to taking recharge time, even if it meant sacrificing a Friday or Saturday night. But even then, time seems to zip by. Those rare free evenings quickly become coveted once midnight hits. How fast it moves. About three weeks ago, my friend Natalie at church expressed her worry with me. She said that I wasn’t smiling and didn’t seem as joyous as I usually was. I know that during that week that I felt off in someway, but it didn’t really hit me that it was physically appar...

So it was Friday night. I was hanging out with my friend Zoro and we were trying to figure out something to do after dinner. We decided the best course of action was to check out a film at the local cinemas. This in itself proved to be a challenge, for you see, the only movies playing at the theaters were either shit or were movies that either of us had already seen (not necessarily meaning those movies were any good either). So our choices boiled down to The Town and Buried . Both garnered generally good reviews. Both had pros and cons going for it. The Town seemed to be an action filled drama, but we figured the story would be not unlike anything we've seen before. Buried , on the other hand, was a unique story that took place in its entirety within a coffin. On the downside, I was tired and sleepy after a long day of work and pumpkin carving (also at work). So we weighed it out, and of course, Buried won. We figured it was an indie movie that not many people have seen, so i...

First of all, the picture to the left couldn't be more perfect. It makes me laugh (note to reader: it's not me). It’s kind of interesting how life is like an ocean — it moves like waves. At my small group fellowship on Wednesdays, prayer is always an interesting time. I find that more often than not, our group will pray for things in waves. Every so often when we pray together, a bunch of us will present prayer items that are similar to each other. Our lives are so different, yet in some ways, the paths are parallel. For those who might not know, I started a new job a few weeks ago, and it’s been great so far. It’s with a company that I worked for in the past, but this time I’m in a different position, with new challenges and responsibilities. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but at the same time for the past 3 weeks, it seems as though every evening after work has been occupied by some sort of activity, be it connecting with friends or just going out to do stuf...

So before I talk about Jackass 3D , let me preface it with a real life story. So last week, I bared witness to a Jackass-like scenario. My work's office is on the 21st floor of a building in the upper downtown area where my office space is right by the windows, facing Toronto's west. I've got a great view of the city and an even better view of the apartment building that is right beside ours. So last Friday I was sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye, I see a bunch of teenagers hobbling on top of the roof. Bad. You see, the apartment building is about 20 storeys high — a long way to fall. And of course, teens are teens, and you know they're up to no good when they're on roofs. So they're smoking what they're smoking, drinking what they're drinking, walking around on the roof without any sense of balance. I ask one of the managers at the office whether we had the number for security in that building. She instead wisely calls the police. Wh...