Taken

This movie struck me as a watered down Bourne Identity. There was some cool fight scenes but the plot was simple and came across very straight forward. This movie is kept short and doesn't try to develop the plot much.

I suppose it is actually kind of refreshing. I mean why bother setting up characters and plot for 30 minutes when you they would really just be vehicles for the fight scenes?

So, in summation, nice little action movie that doesn't bring much else to the table.

Labels: Movies

- posted by Doug @ 10:21:00 PM

 

Avatar

What movie needs to be 162 minutes long? Surely not this one. I had to watch it in two parts and it was still long.

This movie was also supposed to be a technical masterpiece. I will say one thing we are no closer to life like animated beings. They still look creepy and not human like.

The whole Na'vi world is very cartoony and actually came off as very uncreative to me as I felt like the creatures were all retreads from past cartoons/movies.

I was a bit confused between the "Real world" and the Na'vi world. It was a bit hard to picture the Na'vi being part of the real world and not some matrix like world separate from the human, live film world.

In the end the movie just didn't really make a lot of sense to me and I thought the special effects (CGI) work just wasn't good enough to overcome a boring plot and seemingly unimaginative characters. I don't even want to get into the social commentary that this movie appears to send (Forcing out the natives to achieve wealth) because that was the only clear part of this movie.

Maybe I'm just not a scifi kind of guy but this movie was really bland and the fact it was even in the talk for an Oscar is surprising to me. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. It should be marketed as a cartoon movie like Pixar's.

Labels: Movies

- posted by Doug @ 5:38:00 PM

 

Liar's Poker

"Liar's Poker" is a look onto Wall Street in the 80's as Michael Lewis, the author, experienced as an employee.

This book is only 310 pages and is actually a fairly fast read. A fast read when the story is interesting that is. I found several parts of the book that just bored me and made it hard to slog through the stories. Some of the details of bonds and options were a bit over my head which didn't help my enjoyment although I'm sure they helped enhanced the story.

It is fun to read the stories of traders on Wall Street by a person who did not consider himself a trader at heart. You do gain insight into the minds that control a huge part of our nation's economy. There is also plenty of success and failure stories that all involve levels of risk and courage (or stupidity) to take those risks.

For me the book stalled at times but I was still able to gain some insight into Wall Street that helps me understand some of the reasons things move the way they do, especially in light of the current economic collapse. I'm sure people who have more exposure to Wall Street can relate to and enjoy this book more than myself.

Overall a decent read.

Labels: Books

- posted by Doug @ 2:01:00 PM