Snakes on a Plane got more hype than any movie before it that did not have an established fanbase (eg Lord of the Rings, Star Wars prequels, etc). Maybe it’s because I am on the internet all day everyday, and the title lends itself well to parody. Infact, the first time I heard about the movie, I was sure it was a hoax.
Samuel L. Jackson is crazy. And the man has done it all. He has been in movies with good acting and good stories, and terrible movies with terrible acting and stories. And now he has been in a C-List cult film.
Snakes plays out like a made for TV movie that is showing on the USA Network, slotted between an episode of V.I.P. and Walker, Texas Ranger. The effects were mediocre, the storyline was weak, there was zero character development and really, zero characters. The script was unbelievable, unless I find out later that it was written by a 5th grade drama class. But it some ways that is what made it good.
The script was a crowd please at this NY theatre
I have talked to 3 people, none of whom have seen the movie. I asked them all to guess how Sammy got the snakes off the plane. Each one was able to guess. Infact, they guessed with such accuracy, that was sure they had seen the movie. 2 of the 3 thought I was the one joking with them! No, seriously. The ending really is that bad.
But if you go to this movie just to laugh at it, you should be able to enjoy yourself for 100 mintues. Just keep your expectations low. And bring some friends. And make sure those friends are familiar with Mystery Science Theatre.
The first book of R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing trilogy. Bakker is a Canadian author, and this series is somewhat similar to the George R.R. Martin books I’ve mentioned before.
This book is definitely worth reading. The world that Bakker creates is very detailed - it takes a little while to get into the book. At first, I really didn’t know what the hell was going on, as he jumps around from many different perspectives. But after about half the book, I began to appreciate how he built up the main characters. He gave each of the main characters a chance to stand on their own before bringing them all in contact with each other. The world that he creates, while introducing you to these people, is pretty interesting. Sorcery and Magic are very real in this world, but not flaunted like in other fantasy books.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the psycological aspect of it all. Bakker writes with what seems to be multiple personalities, and really gets into the psycological motivation of the characters. I enjoyed reading that, as it makes the book much more realistic. The story isn’t so much a set of facts that are explained, but more of a mass of confusion, biases, opinions and events that are all thrown together. In that way, the book seems very real - where nobody’s really sure who’s in control, or what is really going on - and the people in power have wonderfully large ego’s that help them convince themselves they know what’s going on. Kinda, you know, like the real world.
In short, this is a wicked book, full of words and awesomeness. Worth reading? Yeah.
I’d be interested to see the results of those questions over time - mostly to see what the reaction of the telemarketer is, and how long they stay on the phone.
No, I am serious. Tetris is a great game because it is NEVER over. You can always go faster, you can always make more lines. I also like Tetris because it has been ported to run on just about every device known to man, including my cellphone.
So, when I am bored, or waiting for an appointment, I simply whip out my cellphone and I am stacking blocks in seconds. But, having recently picked the game back up, I have discovered some new techniques…or theories about how to play the game.
The name of the game is efficiency. You want to be able to create as many lines as possible with as few pieces as possible. This not only creates the lines you need to move to the next level, but it keeps the screen clear so that when stuff really starts moving fast, you will be able to keep up.
The tetris game on my cellphone keeps track of your efficiency. It gives you a percentage, usually I am somewhere between 20% - 25% which means I can make a line every 4 blocks or so, which I think is pretty good.
So, here are some tips for keep your efficiency as high as possible:
1. We all know the basic 7 pieces. When it is coming down and you are flipping and positioning the piece, ALWAYS try to lay it with its longest side DOWN. This is the essence of efficiency. We are creating horizontal lines, not vertical. Placing pieces horizontally whenever possible will decrease the number of blocks you will need to create a line. It’s just a fact of math.
2. Do not get yourself into a situation where you are waiting for the long skinny piece to come and save you. You know exactly what I am talking about….you build up this huge block, already to be made into lines if only a long skinny piece will come up. But you are not in control of what is next, so don’t set yourself up in that way.
3. Always watch for the ‘next piece’. Do not think too far ahead, though. That will only lead to the situation described in point #2. By knowing what is coming, you will be able to best place the piece you are playing, and sometimes a placement that looks foolish will suddenly be genius to your audience.
One thing I would like to calculate is what the maximum possible efficiency is, given the randonmness and the 7 different pieces available. I personally have not had over 29%.
We had a couple of free movie passes and nothing to do. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 74%, so we thought, why not? Perhaps this Will Ferrell movie will be funny.
Bzzzzzz!
Wrong answer! This movie made me grin maybe twice. Other than that, it was just the stupidest jokes of all time. It just wasn’t funny. This is not even worthy of an SE post really. I am just glad I didn’t have to pay for this movie.
The previews made this movie look funny, but it’s a case of ‘if you have seen the preview, you have seen the movie’. You tend to get a lot of those sorts of movies these days. This was just a cookie-cutter late 90s comedy that was all spawned from movies like Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Happy Gilmour and Billy Madison….only those were FUNNY! I like making fun of southern rednecks as much as the next guy, but it is tiring after a while.
I have been neglecting to review some of the hikes I’ve been on lately … so with that in mind, here’s one I did about a month ago with Brad and Charlie.
Grotto Canyon isn’t really a tough hike in that there is very little elevation. What you’re supposed to do, is drive out to it and walk along a creek bed. You get pretty far along and you can start to see some ancient paintings of some sort on the rocks. It’s pretty cool. If you keep going from there, you can walk through some pretty neat canyons.
The plan was actually to do just that. But we took the wrong exit to get there, so hit the trail a bit late. Then we started up on a hike and took the wrong trail - we decided to take the trail that went straight up one of the peaks on either side of the canyon. I would estimate that we climbed a good 500m or so on that part of the hike (with quite a bit of map-checking). We would have been able to tell exactly how high, if Charlie could find his GPS - which was apparently in the bag, but was not easy to find. I’m really glad that we took that route though, ’cause otherwise I wouldn’t have found the hike! It’s a great one, really - the views are just fantastic. It’s something like Prairie mountain in terms of effort. Although I think we lost the trail at some point as we had to scale a pretty steep rock face.
So, after awhile, we went back down the hill, and then followed the creek up the canyon. The water was just perfect as it was a really hot day. Some cool rock climbers having fun, the paintings, really made that a nice hike. After the steady incline of the first trail, this all seemed pretty flat. Just after the paintings, you come to a wall, with a trail to the right up to a waterfall - go left. The left way looks like it ends, but it doesn’t. You go through this cool canyon with really high cliffs on either side of you. That was pretty cool stuff. Not too far after that was a neat hoodoo with a cave on it … we all climbed up to look inside the cave … which was only about 20 feet deep, and empty. On the way down from the hoodoo, it was very steep so we went one person at a time. I was last, after Charlie. As Charlie was almost down, I was getting pretty bored, so I picked up a pebble and lobbed it to where I thought he was (I couldn’t see him) - and hit him square in the back… it left a mark and everything.
Then we headed back as the weather was getting a bit iffy, and we’d been out for quite a few hours already. In the car, we took the 1A highway back, and got hit by a massive hail storm. Most people pulled over and hid under trees, but we kept on. Shortly after that we went through Cochrane, and it’s soul-less housing. At least, that’s what Charlie thought of the suburbia housing out there. Anyway, it was a great hike, made all the more fun by the characters in it. Some great vista’s, as you can plainly see.
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