Really bad movies and other Thursday stuff

[yendi]

So I sat and watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse last night.

I now have a new rule: Don't watch sequels to a Paul W. S. Anderson movies (yeah, I know that lots of folks apply that rule to initial PWSA movies themselves, but I'm a guilty pleasure fan of his). This film isn't actually worse than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, but it's close. There are some good concepts, and the action scenes are individually well-filmed. But nothing holds together. And it's got one of the worst endings I've seen, ever.

What really amazes me is that it justified a two-disc special edition. Haven't watched the special features yet, but I might, simply because the twenty deleted scenes might contain character development, plot (please, for the love of god!), continuity, and acting. There are actually some nifty ideas and some good moments in the movie -- it's possible there was a better film that was ruined by the director or the studio.

On the plus side, it had the woman from the Canadian "Once a Thief" series. And Milla, of course.

The other thing I spent last night doing is playing Jak and Daxter, which had been sitting on Elayna's shelf since the day she got it. I'd expected to hate it, as I haven't been impressed with platformers in general since they went 3D (I consider Mario 64 the nadir of platforming, not a fucking breakthrough like Nintendo thinks it is), but this one has sucked me in nicely. Much better than Naughty Dog's other franchise (Crash).

I avoided catching any news last night, but this morning, the tsunami death count has broken 115,000 in 11 countries. No link. It's everywhere.

Yet another person -- a reporter, this time -- has gotten into professional trouble because of his blog. Of course, any article with the line others noticed his eccentric habits, including a desk crowded with action figures. tends to put me off a bit. I'm a lot more suspicious of people who don't have action figures on their desks, frankly.

LJ's being a bitch again, sending me comment notifications from October.

I'm working from home today, because the office is dead. Not RE zombie dead, but really really slow. So I can work here and also get laundry done and bills paid.

Off to catch up on some of that work email.

Comments

[unrepentant.livejournal.com]

Fucking A, my wife and I are fans of the first RE film. About ten mintues into watching the second one last night, we both look at each other and say, "Uhhh, do you want to watch something else?"

Even with two scantily clad, highly edible, gun wielding brunettes on the screen, I was ready to switch over to CSPAN to get out of watching this film.

[yendi]

We were definitely on the same page last night. Don't bother with the deleted scenes, either. But the first documentary (Game Babes) is quite fun.

Desk decor

[snippy]

Right now I have Gir on my desk. In the past I've had a Playmobile pirate ship (complete with rigging, cannon, long and hand guns, and peg-leg captain); a Lego tow truck towing a race car; and a stuffed, talking Captain Incredible (just for a few days, he's too big and falls down all the time).

I work in a law office and have a firm grip on the title "weirdest employee".

[sempereadem.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. UnRep rented Resident Evil Apocalypse last night because I love Milla and Oded but damn, we couldn't even get through the first 20 minutes before I told him to turn it off. It was so godawful. *sniffle*

[yendi]

It does get better after that, if only because the storyline eventually merge, and we get to see Oded and Milla flirt. But it still reeks. That early scene with Oded being lowered and shooting all the zombies should have been all I needed to know to stop watching.

[shellefly.livejournal.com]

I'm a lot more suspicious of people who don't have action figures on their desks, frankly.

My desk at work is action figureless.
Does glow in the dark LEGO Snape on my bookshelf (also at work) count?

[yendi]

Of course Lego Snape counts!

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Mine is, too, but that's largely because cubicles at my office get shared by everyone, so leaving-of-stuff is verboten. If it's any consolations, Barf the Shoulder Monkey has followed me to work from time to time....

[hockeyrules88.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the Jak and Daxter game...You might also want to ccheck out Ratchet and Clank. It wasn't too bad either. I had a very similar feel.

[yendi]

I played a R&C demo when it first came out, and wasn't impressed. I may give it a chance sometime as a rental, just to see if I'm more impressed now. But I figure I've got two more Jak games to search for first. :-)

[amokk]

We rented it, watched it, and nichy still wants to buy it...

There's no redeeming factors in the deleted scenes.

[yendi]

Alas, I found that out. The exposition on the newscaster actually detracted from the story.

[nicoletta.livejournal.com]

Please don't ask me why I want to buy it. I am not entirely sure. I guess because I wanted to know what happened next so badly after the first one, and I love the idea of the Umbrella corporation in general.

The main gripes I had with it was it seemed like they added stuff for the sake of one more explosion/cool gun move/lame quip line and it detracted from the story. It was like there was only 15-20 minutes of plot that they drew out into a movie.

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

I have no action figures on my desk, or in my office.

There is a painted ceramic figure of a young doctor, given me long ago by staff I worked with.

There is a plush doll of Doc from the Seven Dwarves.

There are a number of anatomical models from various drug companies.

There is an acupuncture model that friends got me once (at home, forestcats has an acupuncture model of a horse from the same friends).

There is a University of Wisconsin doll, who, when thrown against a wall, plays the alma mater.

There are a couple of bobble-headed doctors from drug companies or hospitals.

There is a keychain doctor.

There is a plastic model of Snoopy on his doghouse, saying something medical.

There are some small plush animals, knockoffs of those items popular in the 90s, from some of the drug companies.

And then my sister gave me a wolf fetish from the Zunis; I don't really understand why, though my name in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Old English apparently translates to "wolf".

But, there are no action figures.

Will you ever forgive me?

[yendi]

By cubicle standards, that counts as action figures. To the average non-geek (aka the writer of that article), all toys are alike.

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Says who, you're a non-geek? Who's casting these calumnies?

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, at home in the computer room we have the Babylon 5 figures of G'Kar and Londo; since it's not my office at work, I didn't consider that that might count....

[nicoletta.livejournal.com]

My desk is actually starting to look more like a desk lately. With desk like objects (mini desk st louis arch, zen garden, bamboo plant, phone, cups for writing utensils, all my art junk, bills etc) Of course it is still littered with lots of toys, dice and junk.

My action figures have their own neat little 6 shelf chrome tower. It was like a mini book case type thing they make for the bathroom, really skinny but quite tall. So none on the desk, they have their own home. :)