DVDs anyone?

It's late. I'm tired. I'm watching the Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) DVD starring Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer.

It's an animated feature film from Dreamworks with a lot of star power and yet it bombed at the box office. It's a good movie with a lot of action, adventure, humor and a star-crossed romance. What's up with that?

It seems to me that there are a lot of movies out like that. A lot of movies will never be big blockbuster hits, despite creative storytelling attempts. For me, a movie doesn't have to win multiple Academy Awards for me to like it. It just has to entertain. And, that's what movies are all about, right?

To me, a movie is about a two hour(ish) break from the daily grind. Everyday life is pretty tough. Movies (animated, cgi or live action) are just what the doctor ordered. I like going to Hollywood Video on Friday night and renting three or four films and watching them back-to-back on a quiet Saturday or Sunday afternoon or both. It's cheaper than going to the movies and you don't have to pay exorbitant prices for a hot dog, popcorn and a soda. (You also don't have to put up with that loud mouth jerk sitting behind you.)

Now, if I could just afford to get the Firefly boxed set.

Movies on DVD worth checking out:

• Hollywood Homicide


• The Frighteners


• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - awesome cgi film


• The Cutting Edge


• Congo


• Timeline


• Paycheck


• Renaissance Man


• Life or Something Like It

Life as a web geek, pt 1

I love my job. I really do.

Now, I know many of you are rolling your eyes and thinking 'what a dweeb!'

Okay, I am. A dweeb who's got a job doing something he's always wanted to do. That's right everyone, I am a professional Cold Fusion web developer.

Let me tell ya. Web developers make the WWW go 'round. Everything you read, every online poker game you play, every porn site you drool over was built by a web developer. But, I digress. (This is a post for another day.)

A few short months ago, I was working a thankless help desk job when one bright December morn, I received a email from the DFWCFUG mailing list. A local company (Zunch Communications, Inc.) was looking for a junior Cold Fusion developer for immediate hire. Cha-Ching!

Realistically (or cynically, you might say), I never expected to get the job. Aside from my Chaos March site, I hadn't done any serious programming in a long time. With apologies to the great Inigo Montoya, I studied rather than pursued Cold Fusion for several years. I showed off the Chaos March site, it being the only one I'd worked on recently.

Now, I'd been trying to land an entry-level web job like this for years. Man, it's hard to get one without a decent portfolio to show off. As I said earlier, I never expected to get the job. So, imagine my surprise, during the second interview when they said I got the job. Wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.

In the six months I've been here, I've worked on a half dozen sites. I've worked on eCommerce sites, brochure sites and general information sites. All of them have really challenged my programming skills. I thought I was a decent programmer. Turns out I have a ways to go before I reach 'decent' status. j/k.

I love my job. I really do. It's the clients we have to work with sometimes that make me understand why some animals eat their young. Harsh, but true.

Words of wisdom: Learn CFML, Javascript, ASP.NET, CSS, DHTML. Learn all you can, code pages day and night, build up a portfolio of sites demonstrating your skills, then brace yourself for the ugly reality that you still don't know enough.

Moral of the story? Uh, dreams can come true. Perserverance pays off. A good angle shot is essential in foosball.

Cruisin' through the War of the Worlds

Wellll,,,,

I went and saw Tommy Boy in War of the Worlds last night. If you're looking for an action-packed, shoot-em up slugfest a la Independence Day, you're going to be greatly disappointed. This one's more of a 'hangin on the edge of your seat' nailbiter. Tons of suspense, great visuals and cameos by troops from the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

The story is weak in that it's mainly Tommy Boy trying to get his son and daughter from Point A to Point B. His character doesn't remotely resemble Pete Mitchell, which is ok for a while but gets monotonous. His acting is great for the limited depth the character is given.

Dakota Fanning, imho, does a better job acting than Tommy Boy. Tim Robbins plays a deranged "guerrilla" out to save humanity from the aliens. His departure was not what I expected and left a bad taste in my mouth. Surely Spielberg could've come up with another way to get rid of him.

Overall, the action was nothing like Revenge of the Sith or Mr. & Mrs. Smith. There are a few scenes scattered showing the aliens kickin booty and kinda tame scene at the end where the Army strikes back. Suspense, not action, is the heart of this movie.

A pleasant surprise at the end is a cameo from two of the stars of the original War of the Worlds (1953).

The beginning and ending were narrated by Morgan Freeman and taken directly from the book.

I see a resurgence in H.G. Wells novels sales over the next month or so.

I give War of the Worlds 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Finally Fantastic

Well, another day, another dollar. Tomorrow, that dollar will be spent. Such is life.

Presently, I'm debating going to a late show of 'War of the Worlds'. I'm kinda leery about it. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure it's gonna be a great movie. Spielberg films always are. It's just that Tommy boy's been acting a little odd lately.

Maybe it's cause he's doing a girl fifteen years younger than he is. Maybe now that he doesn't have to worry about his professional PR rep tell him what to say and do, he can feel free to spout whatever pops into his mind these days. (I would have loved to have seen that interview last week with Matt L.) He's free to be himself and, boy, I bet people are wondering 'Who the hell is this guy?'

A discussion for another day, I suppose. I have enough issues in my own life that I don't have the time/inclination to worry about some Hollywood superstar who makes more money per film than my family will ever earn in their combined lifetimes. But, I'm not bitter.

Anyway, I did go and see 'Fantastic Four' monday night. I got a free pass to a preview show after work. My only regret is that I couldn't get a date.

Back to FF. It's a good popcorn, set the mind to neutral and suspend disbelief movie. Ioan Griffudd is a cool actor. He was great in 'King Arthur'. I've heard he did a good job in the 'Hornblower' tv movies, too. Ironically, I caught a glimpse of him in '102 Dalmations' the other night while I was channel hopping and stopped for a moment on the Disney Channel.

Jessica Alba's sexy as ever. She's an odd choice for Sue Storm, though. I'd've figured they'd get a buxom blonde like Jessica Simpson to play the role. Longtime FF fans will know what I mean.

The other cast members fit the roles pretty well. The only problem I had was the editing. The movie kinda jumped from a crucial scene on the space station back to everyone being back on earth with no explanation of how they got there.

The fx were pretty cool. The story could've used some finetuning and more interaction between Reed and Sue. Ioan played the 'Scientist without a clue' part perfectly.

Enough for now. I just bought a ticket online for a late showing of 'War of the Worlds'. gotta get ready.

ttfn,

Chris