Movie Review: Zathura

Summary: Jumanji set in space.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review: This movie was lots of fun. This is somewhat a sequel to Jumanji. Zathura is a board game that two kids start playing and the game becomes real, too real. Jumanji was set in the jungle, this was in space. Excellent. If this movie had come out before Jumanji, I would have voted it much higher. Unfortunately, this movie had the same exact feel. It just wasn't "new" enough.

Overall, I thought it was a really good movie with some exciting space scenes. If you liked Jumanji, you would like this as well. Too bad this one didn't come out first.

Movie Review: Dan in Real Life

Summary: Chick flick with the guy from "The Office".

Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Review: Good chick flick. Steve Carell is great! It is a chick flick, though. But, a funny one. So, I'm torn. Funny actor, funny movie versus a chick flick. Oh, well. I guess I liked it a lot.

The movie is about a widowed guy and his three daughters. They leave for the annual family vacation with all the relatives in a cabin on a lake/ocean. He finds love, gets yelled at by his daughters, and gets advice (even though he doesn't want it) from the rest of the family.

I told you it was a chick flick. But, really, it is a good movie. Lots of laughs.

Movie Review: Sin City

Summary: Dark, "comic book" style, film noir about murder, torture , and all things violent.

Rating: 4.0 out of 10

Review: Visually, this movie was great. It combined film noir with a good dark comic book style. You felt as if the comic book had come alive and you were watching the story from inside the book. The problem was with the violence. About half of the way through the movie I was hoping that it would end so that I didn't have to watch another torture scene. There were a lot of torture scenes. It felt like a Quentin Tarantino- style film (in fact, he was a guest director). You can tell this was a Frank Miller movie, though. It had the same kind of look as 300. Another problem was that the plot was pretty confusing. I normally enjoy a confusing plot, but this one was kind of hard to follow. Maybe I closed my eyes too many times. If you like Quentin Tarantino, you may like this movie. It was not for me.

Portal: A great PC game!

I just got a new PC game. It's been a long time since I've played a game this good. The game in question is Portal. Portal is a puzzle game with some excellent humor thrown about.

The main component of the game is the portal gun. You play a character that has to work her way through the level using this unique device. The gun can shoot two portal: an orange one and a blue one. Your character can then walk through one portal and pop out the other. This is the basis of the game. But, once you think about shooting portals on the ceiling and flying through the air to shoot another portal just before you hit the ground, it opens up a lot of possibilities. You will end up flying across the rooms to solve the puzzles. Great fun.

The comedy in the game is what makes this a fantastic game. The plot unveils itself as the game progresses, so I won't ruin it for you. But, trust me, this game is worth the money just to hear some of the quotes from the computer character. AND, it is only $20. Pretty good price. The main game is not very long, but there are a lot of advanced puzzles and extra goals. Plus, eventually, more levels will be available for purchase and user submitted levels will be available, too.

Check out the trailer for some gameplay footage and some of the humor.

Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299927595688205543

New York Vacation Pictures

Here are some pictures from our vacation.

New York Vacation 2007

Why?

The time has come and gone for our annual September vacation. Last year we went to California. This year we decided to go to upstate New York. Why? Because we had never been there. Why else? The Adirondack Mountains in New York were supposed to be very beautiful with lots of lakes and mountains with plenty of hiking and water to have fun. So, we decided to rent a cabin for the week in Indian Lake, NY. We couldn’t get the whole week, so we look at the map and picked a big city that we could visit near the airport: Boston. Again, we’ve never been to Boston, so why not? Oh, and the “we” I speak of is Sarah, Jacob, me, Alan, and Julie.

SkyBus

We (Sarah) found some great airplane tickets through SkyBus. We found tickets from Columbus to Chickapee, MA for $20 round trip. That’s crazy. So, we gladly drove two hours to the airport and 3 ½ more from the airport to the cabin. This way we saved a huge amount of money. The only problem with SkyBus is that it does not have assigned seating. So, as long as you get in line early enough, you will have no problems. I would highly recommend SkyBus. It was a great deal.

Cabin

The cabin was fantastic. We (Sarah) couldn’t have picked a better place to stay. The cabin was on Lake Adirondack, a lake about 1 mile across. Very beautiful. The cabin came with one rowboat/motorboat, one canoe, and two kayaks. I spent a lot of time out on the lake in the kayaks. They were a blast. Fishing was done by Alan and Julie who actually caught some keeper sized. Jacob was a little nervous his first time out on the canoe. But, once he saw everybody else out on the water, he loved it. We cruised around the entire lake before he fell asleep in Sarah’s arms.

Indian Lake, NY

This was a very small town. That was our only complaint about the cabin. We basically had to cook all our dinners because there weren’t any restaurant open in town. There was one that looked promising, but they only opened Thursday through Sunday. I blame most of this on the time of the year. We were there at the end of September, so we were outside of the peak tourist season.

Lake George

Once proclaimed by Thomas Jefferson the most beautiful body of water he had ever seen, this was a nice, larger town. We still had problems finding places to eat. In the end, it worked out, because we had some fantastic New York style pizza at Capri’s Pizza. The drive up Prospect Mountain was fun and had some good views.

Lake Placid

The home of the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics. A much more touristy town. It had lots of restaurants and shops. This was a fun place to hang out. They also have a great drive up a mountain that we didn’t get to do. Too foggy with a visibility of zero.

Hiking

Be prepared. The hiking here is in the mountains. So, as my book told me, a “short, easy, rewarding climb” resulted in a one mile trail up a mountain with a 1000 foot assent. Not easy. We really enjoyed the Castle Rock climb near Long Lake. I highly recommend this trail. Jacob was a natural hiker. Hitchhiker, that is. He rode in a kid carrying backpack and loved every minute of it. Every single time he got into the backpack, he saw a dog. So, now when he gets into the backpack, he says “ro ro” (his word for dog).

Boston

Don’t drive here. The traffic is awful and the other drivers are crazy. Seriously. I recommend parking at least two miles away from downtown and walking. Boston was fun and it had a nice tourist trail running through the city with a lot of historic buildings scattered about. We saw Paul Revere’s house, the North Tower Church, the Bunker Hill Monument, and the North End District (an old Italian area). There was a farmer’s market and an alternative energy fair going on downtown. Both of these were fun to walk through.

The Union Oyster House

This is the oldest restaurant in the United States. I think it dates back to around 1800. We decided to try out the restaurant on our first night in Boston. So, we drove downtown (don’t do this) and parked in a garage that was cheap if we ate at the restaurant and parked for less than three hours. So, we browsed around for an hour in the city, then went to the restaurant at about 5pm. The hostess said that we would have to wait a little while for a table, but we could go into the bar area and order some appetizers. We got some nachos and everybody ordered some sodas. Oh, sodas are pretty expensive in the bar and they do not have refills. Just FYI. After about an hour of waiting, we finally got our table. So, we maneuvered upstairs to one of the many floor of the restaurant. It was a claustrophobic’s nightmare. We got a table and started waiting for our table. To make a long story somewhat shorter, we waited an hour for our food. It was very good, though. When we got back to the parking garage, we were 20 minutes over the allowed 3 hours. So, we had to pay $28 to park. Oh, well. Live and learn.

Overall

We loved the trip. It was a blast. The lake was beautiful, the cabin was fantastic, the trees were gold and red, the hiking was tough but rewarding, Boston was fun and historical. I would highly recommend anyone visiting the Adirondack region, especially in late September. Just amazing.

Movie Review: Happenstance

Summary: French movie with the girl from Amelie.

Rating: 5.0 out of 10

Review: It was a cute movie. Nothing as good as Amelie. The story was kind of a jumble of different characters and how every action that someone makes can have a great impact on someone else. Skip it. Go watch Amelie, instead.

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