Movie Review: Flightplan

Summary: Woman and young daughter get on a plane and suddenly the kid goes missing. But, everyone on the plane says she got on alone. Is she going crazy or is everyone in on the missing child?

Rating: 5.0 out of 10

Review: Not a bad movie, but not great. Really, the only point to this movie is to figure out if the woman is going crazy or not. The build up to the reveal isn’t too bad and the viewer gets to try and figure out what is going on, at least. After the reveal, the movie wraps up fairly quickly and entertainingly. Despite some plot holes which I couldn’t quite figure out, it was a satisfying “what is going on” movie.

Movie Review: Hot Fuzz

Summary: A parody (sort of) of action cop movies (Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon, etc.) by the same guys who did Shawn of the Dead, Cube, and Nothing.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Review: Well, this movie had the same feel that Shawn of the Dead did. And it pokes fun at cop movies in an over-the-top dramatic feel. I’m having a hard time describing the feel of this movie, though. It is definitely not like Airplane or Naked Gun; but, it was a parody of cop movies. The setup is a “super cop” in London is doing too good of a job and making his coworkers look bad, so he is shipped off to a small town in the country. How is this “by the book” cop going to adjust to small town living, especially when weird things start happening?

So, I liked the ending of the movie much better than I liked the other 90%. It wasn’t bad, it was just a little boring; a bit too much dry, English humor for most of the movie. Although, this isn’t completely true, because it did mix in the “super cop” feel of action movies and a “who done it” feel of mysteries, just so it could make fun of them. So, all in all, I would say that it is just not my style of comedy. If you liked Shawn of the Dead, you would probably like this movie; and vice versa.

LFotW: Ad ignorantum

This week's Logical Fallicy is Ad Ignorantum or the argument from ignorance. The argument from ignorance basically states that a specific belief is true because we don't know that it isn't true. Defenders of extrasensory perception, for example, will often overemphasize how much we do not know about the human brain. It is therefore possible, they argue, that the brain may be capable of transmitting signals at a distance.
UFO proponents are probably the most frequent violators of this fallacy. Almost all UFO eyewitness evidence is ultimately an argument from ignorance – lights or objects sighted in the sky are unknown, and therefore they are alien spacecraft.

Intelligent design is almost entirely based upon this fallacy. The core argument for intelligent design is that there are biological structures that have not been fully explained by evolutionary theory; therefore a powerful intelligent designer must have created them.

Airwaves Kite Fest

Once again, it was time for the great Airwaves Kite Fest in West Chester. I really like going to this. This year was a little different in the experience. First of all, we’ve had floods for many days leading up to the event, so the fields were very muddy and even swampy in some areas. So, the mud meant that there was no parking on the fields (and caused some huge lines waiting to park) and it meant that the open field for flying was very wet. Secondly, on the Sunday that I went, the wind was almost nonexistent. These were some tough conditions for a kite show, but the show went on, nonetheless. It just meant that more people spent time watching the professionals than flying their own.

Due to the 0 to 3 mph winds, only the ultralights (very lightweight kites) were flying on Sunday. So, the performers that I saw were the Chicago Fire Kite Team, Zach and Josh Gordon, and a few others who attempted the winds; including a guy with a 18 foot wing span stunt kite. All the performers were great, but the EOS team of Josh and Zach was great. They did an amazing job with their music and complicated, synchronized tricks (including flat spins, which I’m going to have to figure out how they do). The only quad-line kite I saw was Josh’s. His performance was very upbeat and entertaining. I think I will have to get me one of those kites. All in all, despite the conditions, it was a great show. Here are some pictures I took last year (forgot my camera, this year).

Quad-line "Revolution" Kite

Pinewheels

Chicago Fire's "Killer Bee" Kites

Restarant Review: Mesh (2008)

Went to Mesh for the second time the other day. Great restaurant. Believe it or not, but this time it was for my birthday, again. Mesh is one of the fancier restaurants that I have been to. Here is last years review by me.

First off, everybody there knew it was my birthday and was very nice in congratulating me (not that I had a choice with anther birthday). Anyway, Sarah and I stated things off with the Potato Poppers again. They are definitely one of the best things on the menu. I got the corn chowder soup and it was just alright. Not nearly as good as their tomato bisque. For our meals, Sarah got the pan roasted chicken with gnocchi and I got the swordfish special. Both meals were excellent and the swordfish was the best I’ve ever had, perfectly cooked with a great flavor.

The desserts deserve their own special honors. As good as the rest of the food is, the desserts are just incredible. We have never been less than amazed by them. Sarah got Oreo ice cream. Yep, that’s it. And it was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Simply great. I got “a tasting of 5 truffles” (the chocolate candy, not the fungus). Let me talk about each one. The first one was “chocolate toffee”. Really good and rich. Lots of flavor there. The second one was “blueberry”. This had a white chocolate coating and a very light blueberry flavored filling. Again, really good. The third on was my favorite. It was “gingerbread”. Holy cow! Sarah thought it was too much, but I liked it a lot. Really strong cinnamon and clove flavor. The last two were a little different. How about “Balsamic Vinegar”? Yeah, that was my least favorite. I appreciated how it was different and I didn’t hate it. But, there was something weird about eating chocolate and smelling and tasting vinegar. Kind of weird. The last one was “lemon rosemary”. This one was fantastic. It has a white chocolate coating with a lemon filling that had a strong rosemary essence to it. I thought the combination was great.

So, overall, good experience at Mesh. I would recommend it to anyone (who doesn’t care to spend $100+ for two people and doesn’t mind getting a babysitter for the kids).

Movie Review: The Darjeeling Limited

Summary: Three brothers go to India in order to have a spiritual journey to renew their relationships with each other. Nothing seems to go as planned, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Review: The movie wasn’t great. It seemed weird just to be weird. You didn’t really know where the plot was going (although, that may be the point) and I’m not really sure if the brothers solved anything. I guess, if you’re into Natalie Portman, then there are about 3 minutes of the pre-movie (Hotel Chevalier) that are good. I put The Darjeeling Limited into the weird, quirky, surreal movie category; where I’m sure the movie had some deeper meaning that I just didn’t get. Seems to fit with other Wes Anderson (Director) movies: Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore. Really, it was just not my type of movie.

LFotW: Ad hominem

An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter another’s claims or conclusions by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself. Taken broadly, this fallacy can be any argument that a person’s claims is false because of a negative quality possessed by the person. True believers will often commit this fallacy by countering the arguments of skeptics by stating that skeptics are closed minded. Skeptics, on the other hand, may fall into the trap of dismissing the claims of UFO believers, for example, by stating that people who believe in UFO's are crazy or stupid.

Sometimes this fallacy can be more subtle. For example, undesired research results can be dismissed because the researchers have an apparent conflict of interest. While true conflicts are a legitimate concern, the use of even minor potential conflicts to dismiss research finding a-priori is little more than an ad hominem logical fallacy.

Subtype – Argument from prior error
This form of ad hominem logical fallacy argues that the current claims of a person or group are incorrect because of errors committed in the past. Creationists, for example, often point to fossil frauds, or the discovery of living coelacanth previously thought to be extinct to counter the current evidence for evolution.