What Did I Miss?

About a year ago a friend of mine that loved Buffy, let me borrow season 1 after finding out that I had never watched the show.  Yeah, I, the geek, had never seen Buffy.  It was obviously love at first sight.  I watched the entire series in less than 6 months.  This made me wonder what other shows that I missed that I should reconsider in the age of Hulu.

Babylon 5 was the next show I have started on.  Seasons 1 and 2 are on Hulu and my friends had all raved about how good the show was.  It was harder to get into because the entire show seems to be one huge story arc.  I haven’t finished the show yet.  I am only midway through the third season.  The show is truly good and I am glad that I am watching it now as I think I am at a better place to understand and appreciate this show. 

If you missed B5 the first time around, check out the first two seasons on Hulu.  Power through the bad CG and the first couple of episodes.  They are developing characters and creating an intricate plot.  I don’t say this lightly, but what I have seen, blows Buffy away.  Seriously, check it out.

GMX-Geek Media Expo

Hackers-1995

This classic stars Jonnie Lee Miller and a very young and very hot Angelina Jolie.  It is great fun and was one of the first movies about hacking or even computers besides War Games a decade earlier.  The movie is completely dated now and was completely unrealistic a decade ago, but like I said.  Great fun.  I loved this movie when it came out and it hasn’t aged well.  The acting in this movie is subpar.  The plot is fun and pits a bunch of kids up against a huge corporation.  I would call it The Goonies of the computer age.  The movie launched the careers of several people.

I wanted to be a hacker after seeing this movie, but the reality is nothing like this movie.  Angelina Jolie was completely hot in this movie in a way she hasn’t replicated since.  I thought Jonnie Lee Miller was going to be a big star and I expected good things from Matthew Lillard. 

It is an interesting movie, and a lot of fun if you can suspend disbelief.  It is fairly tame, so it is pretty family friendly.  It is interesting looking at things from the movie that carry on today.  and is worth the two hours it takes to watch it. 

Technorati Tags: hackers,johnny lee miller,angelina jolie,matthew lillard,movies,movie reviews

Once

Picked this movie up because I thought it had John McGinley in it.
Seriously, the lead, Glen Hansard, looks just like him. Got home,
realized that he wasn't and, thankfully, watched the movie anyways.

Th e movie revolves around an Irish singer/songwriter (Hansard)
and a young Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova) as they meet and attempt
to record a demo. Along the way a beautiful friendship is forged, great
songs are sung, and both of their worlds change a little. The music is
real as both Hansard and Irglova are professional musicians. It has a
moving, soul felt quality that instantly grabbed me. The acting was
superb. Irglova is absolutely adorable in the role and Hansard is
perfect in his role of down and out musician with a dream.

This movie was more. After I watched it, I got the feeling that
it was very important for some reason. These almost strangers came
together and helped each other out, sometimes in ways that neither would
ever have understood. It felt real and it felt pure. This movie tells
you to never give up and that it is okay to have a dream. Hansard's
character is afraid to fail at the beginning, but by the end, he, and
the audience, knows that trying and failing would still be succeeding.
This is the message I will take away. Trying and failing is still
succeeding where dreams are concerned.

Excellent movie! I have no problems telling people to rent this
one, heck buy it if you want. There is quite a bit of language in this
movie so let the wee ones go to bed first.

Technorati Tags: movie,movie reviews,once

Soldier (1998)

This movie came on ion tonight and I gave it a watch for the first time since seeing it in theaters.  This movie stars Kurt Russell as SGT Todd.  Todd is the soldier of the title and was trained since birth, with several others, to be a super soldiers.  The movie opens with a montage of different training that the soldiers went through and also different battles that they had fought in. 

Flash forward and the soldiers are all well decorated and Todd stands out as the best of the best.  The soldiers are aging and their numbers diminishing from combat.  Just in time, a new crop of soldiers show up.  This new group are genetically modified perfect soldiers.  To test the new soldiers Todd is pitted up against Cain 607 (Jason Scott Leigh).  Cain beats Todd in every test and eventually dispatches him in hand to hand combat with two other older soldiers, just to make it fair. 

Todd is left for dead on a trash planet and is adopted by the locals.  For whatever reason the ship comes back a couple of weeks later and they decide to wipe out the population of the planet as training for the new soldiers.  Todd has gained affection for these people in the two weeks, and decides to protect them while wiping out the new batch of soldiers, killing the leaders of the program, and liberating the old obsolete soldiers. 

The movie isn’t half bad.  I like the concept of soldiers raised from birth and the message that a non brain washed soldier will be a superior soldier to one that is basically a robot.  If you know what you are fighting for, you are more likely to win.  The really awesome thing about this movie is all the nods it makes to other science fiction movies.  Check out the trivia on imdb for a rundown.

Technorati Tags: movies,movie reviews,soldier,kurt russell,jason leigh,science fiction