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Hi all…
Finally… A Quantum of Solace has a trailer… It releases November 7, 2008. And it looks magnificent.
With Casino Royale in 2006, I fell back in love with the world of James Bond. It intersected with the world of Jason Bourne for a time, and that gritty realism grabbed me in a way that I hadn’t been grabbed by a Bond film in a very long time.
Daniel Craig’s Bond is vicious. Hard. Violent. And damn good. This trailer gives us a taste. We’ll have to wait a few months to see if it’s as good as Casino Royale, but I have some hope that’s the case.
I had a chance to get away this weekend to one of my “happy” places in the world… Taylor Park, Colorado. Roughly 38 miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, and at approximately 9400 feet above sea level, the Taylor Reservoir is a place I spent many happy days during my childhood. Hopefully I will get a chance to share this beautiful area more and more with my own children in the years to come.
Growing up, my family and I spent many summers (between Memorial Day and Labor Day) at a cabin not far from this beautiful lake. We would fish and hike, and when the weather turned bad, just sit and watch the weather.
Now that I have a family of my own (as does my sister), we decided it was a good weekend to get away with our kids. We rented a cabin from the Taylor Park Trading Post and rented an ATV from Colorado ATV Rentals, which is also right there at the trading post. We bounced all around Taylor as well as up to Tincup, Colorado, a beautiful little town (you can see some pictures here), on our way to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake is this gorgeous little lake a bit of a bouncy ride above TIncup. Pure clear water and views to die for in this serene lake on the way up to the top of Tincup Pass.
I’ll try and post some pictures of our trip. We just got back today, but we took many great pictures!
I recently had a chance to see the movie Jumper on DVD. I have to admit I was expecting a train wreck after all the negative press this movie got. However, I actually enjoyed the movie (to a point). Does that make me a bad person? Or just indicate I have bad taste? There were of course things I thought could’ve been done better, but overall I didn’t hate the film.
(I’m not rushing out to buy it right away, but if I find it on sale sometime down the line I might pick it up.)
David Goyer wrote the script, which is based on a series of young adult novels by Steven Gould. I’ve liked Goyer’s work in the past - he’s done scripts for lots of movies I’ve enjoyed such as Ghost Rider, Blade: Trinity, Blade 2, Batman Begins, and so on. I haven’t read the books, but from what I could tell from the extras on the DVD, they diverged a bit from the books to get a more Hollywood-type script anyway.
Rating:
That said… Let’s talk about the cast. Hayden Christensen was the main Jumper in the film, David “Rice Bowl” Rice. Most famous for playing Annakin Skywalker, I can’t say that he’s ever really done much for me as an actor. I did like him in Life as a House with Kevin Kline. If you get a chance to see that, I recommend it. But he didn’t do much for me in this film.
Then you have Jamie Bell as Griffin, another Jumper. I honestly liked his character more than Hayden’s.
Diane Lane sleep walks through the film as David Rice’s mother.
Sam Jackson goes overboard (in an ok way) as Roland, a Paladin determined to wipe out all Jumpers. His white hair was a bit over the top, but I’m guessing there’s a story there we never found out.
And then there’s Rachel Bilso, who played Millie Harris, David Rice’s crush in high school and damsel in distress through most of the movie. Bilson is cute. And I think she did what she could with the character.
So overall, the cast didn’t really thrill me much.
The special effects however were pretty cool. The locations were awesome.
Was this a great movie? Heck no. But I’ll give it 2/4. It had its moments. Maybe a whole movie based around the Griffin character would be more interesting? Who knows.
It’s going to be a busy few weeks coming up as far as movies go. We’ll be out of town this weekend, so we’ll miss the Wall-E opening weekend, but I’m looking forward to:
One of the reasons I wanted to update my blog was so I had a ton more control over the theme, layout, and plug-ins included in the Wordpress installation. I’ve come to really appreciate having the extra control over what actually shows up in my layout. But one of the things I’ve struggled with has been banner advertisements.
I want to advertise. I’m not planning on making billions of dollars here, but would like a bit of some extra income from my writing if at all possible. But I’m not much of a marketer. And web design is very new to me. So figuring out where to put these banners has been a bit of a mystery.
Then I came across the MaxBlogPress Max Banner Ads plug-in. This is Review-ware, which I’ve never heard about before, but the idea is that it’s free to anybody who wants to write a review about it. So that’s this post. I think this thing is awesome.
I’ve been able to consolidate a few things into one widget. And it rotates the ads automatically.
So, as I said, I’m never going to make billions doing this. But it cleans up the look/feel of the blog significantly and handles the management of those things so I don’t have to.
I heartily recommend that anybody who has banner ads on their site check it out!
Ok… Uwe, you’ve gotten a bum rap. I mean… How can people not see your genius?
You’re involved with hot, amazing actresses (Kristianna Loken and Tara Reid)… You’ve got the computer game industry loving you… And your adoring fans want to knock down your doors and smother you with kind words…
Ever since Alone in the Dark came out in 2005 and I saw Tara Reid acting as a smart scientist, I knew you had it in you to go on to great things.
And then 2007 brought us In the Name of the King, A Dungeon Siege Tale, which was totally underrated. I mean… The way you used water in some of the cinematography just made me want to cry.
And today while researching this glowing piece, I discovered that you’re doing a movie based on Far Cry possibly due out later this year and a sequel to Alone in the Dark! Brilliant!
The movie industry and film goers everywhere owe you more than the tokens of respect they’ve been giving you so far. I think they should literally mob you and kill you with kindness for all that you’ve bestowed upon the big screen.
[sniff] That’s all I can say right now. I’m too choked up to go on.
Yes, I know I’m only stating the obvious. Jar Jar Binks, that loveable Gungan from his native Naboo, is everybody’s favorite character from Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, and 3. Thanks George for creating his winning personality!
What do we know about Jar Jar?
Well, he’s grace personified under pressure. He has a beautiful singing voice. And he has a ton of political influence in the Republic. What else is there that we need to know? Nothing. That pretty much sums it up. His political career was untarnished by questionable practices. He truly led a simple, above-board life in the name of the Republic.
Without Jar Jar, I think all three of the Star Wars prequel movies would’ve severely sucked.
The Lair is going to undergo a facelift this week as I shift from 1&1 hosting to self-hosted on my own domain. So keep an eye out for some changes! Hopefully the site won’t be down more than a day or two, but we’ll see!
For a sneak peek at the new design, click on the image below:
fitz in 
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