X-Z Movies
How to identify this Nintendo VS. Game Board
There are two websites that are really great for identifying an unknown arcade game board (PCB), PCB photos at Xmission and the good old Crazy Kong website. I have a number of websites bookmarked as PCB identification resources, but these two are the best. (more…)
Zoolander (2001)
Who’s in it
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Milla Jovovich, Christine Taylor, Jon Voight, Jerry Stiller, David Duchovny
Should you see this movie?
I would say, probably not. Now, that said, I only heard terrible things about this movie from people that don’t have the same movie tastes as me, but I think Sarah and I both found this movie funny because of who we are with. We saw most of this movie in Cleveland with my college friends, and it was so off the wall stupid that I found it funny. It has a ton of good actors in it, so you would hope that the idea would be successful, an inside look into the world of male modeling. No, seriously, just that by itself is funny, and the movie does a good job of mocking a possible simplicity of male model intelligence. Use your best judgement, not for everyone.
You, Me, and Dupree (2006)
Who’s in it
Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson, Michael Douglas, Seth Rogen
Should you see this movie?
No, this one sucked more than you could imagine. It was half awkward “Meet the Parents” humor and half pity humor, and that sort of thing hardly ever works for me. I thought this movie might be worth .50 cents, but it wasn’t. Dupree is a loser friend who is a free spirit and can’t find his way and is into all sorts of weird stuff. The movie just drags on as this person hates this person, and then someone else doesn’t like someone else and the other people are friends, and on and on. Not funny, you sit there wondering what else you could be doing, skip this one with all you can.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Who’s in it
Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, Ben Foster, on and on
Should you see this movie?
If you liked the other ones you will probably like this. I had great expectations for this film, but was nervous because of the director Brett Ratner. I think Marvel has to be really careful with their directors, because they have so many projects shouldn’t mean they should just pick whoever, and you can not not judge Ratner by the job Singer did with the previous movies. I thought there was too much going on in a short period of time that everything seemed stunted, there were characters included that, granted, it was awesome to see them on the screen in a new formation (Jean Grey as Pheonix, Juggernaut, Angel, Beast, Bobby Drake as true Iceman, and more Kitty Pride), but Beast looked silly, Angel had no relevance whatsoever and The Pheonix got a bit part as a power junkie slave to Magneto. The acting was stiff, Magneto wasn’t believeable anymore and nether was Wolverine. The action half baked and over done for shock quality, the Golden Gate bridge scene, cool and within Magneto’s magnitude, but at the same time it would not be able to just hover over that distance over the water. Even fantasy has some tangible limits. Everything seemed too talky, tell not show, and the whole thing just didn’t compare to number 2. Now, it did have some great action, and you wanted to see the characters story advance, and you did get that. You got to see more of the characters as I mentioned above, you got cool scenes with Juggernaut and Kitty Pride, Iceman and Pyro, Collosus, on and on. But when you see this you hope that, unless they ditch Ratner and the box office showed this, the next one will fall victim to the four movie superhero trap. The third one with a new director is so so, and the final one is crap that ends the franchise for 15-20 years. Let’s hope that with how many characters died that is the case.
X-Men 2 United (2003)
I’ve seen this three times, and I can never get enough of this movie.
The famous Mutant Marvel Team, the X-Men, are back in this second movie that now has the advantages of an established backgound of characters and stories. We now get to see things really let loose, while at the same time, continue to develop these great relationships that seem to be at the core of Bryan Singer’s movies.
The base idea, there is one evil hellbent government official that is focused on wiping out mutant kind. His son was a freak mutant and his son caused him great pain that only pushed him further over the edge.
All of our favorite characters are back, Magneto, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm. But this time we added Nightcrawler who is introduced in a stunning and truly fitting opening sequence, showing off his teleporting powers in the White House. We have also added a more grown up Pyro, who is young and head strong, and shows off his powers way too much.
A great story and great action. I recommend this movie to all. I may be biased, but you still need to see this movie. The first one would help to see first, but that isn’t nearly as good as this one.
So many great parts, Wolverine protecting the children at the mansion when it is hit by military troops, his viciousness still gives me chills. The small rols of Cyclops and Yukio, who has a great battle scene with Wolverine and her adamantium finger blades. Magneto when he uses iron in a guard’s blood to escape a fully plastic prison. And of course, let’s not forget the end, when Jean Grey’s powers come to a boiling point as she sacrifices herself for the others and we see glimpses of “The Pheonix”.
A shame that Singer won’t be directing any more of these movies anytime soon, but you can’t pass up a chance to direct a new Superman movie, and he will be perfect at the relationships in that movie. I just hope Brett Ratner is not the Joel Schumacher of the X-Men franchise. With strong rumors of Kelsey Grammer as “The Beast” and possibly “The Sentinels” the new script promises some great things.
