Well, we've hit the end of season one. They've killed more than half the cast, destroyed all the Gundams, and healed the pilot with the fractured personality. If he's still alive. Really, the safety of the Gundam pilots are all a big question mark. Right at the end of the show Oh. Andre the Mobile Armour was disabled my Setsuna. Then, surprise, there's a mobile suit inside. It's dispatched. But the man preseived to be the main antagonist was just a pawn all along! It was a guy named, and I'm not making this up, Ribbons. Yes. A name that shall be feared through the ages. In spite of the silly names, I am quite looking forward to season two.
As a side note, please feel free to respond to any on my posts should you feel like further discussion is warranted. I'll take part.
I'm Dave and this has been your virtual reality check.
Friday, 30 December 2011
Baby Mama
Yes! Another movie! This one is also about babies! Tina Faye, Steve Martin, and a bunch of other people I kinda recognize, but don't know. Tina Faye can't get pregnant because she has a "T"-shaped uterus. Anyway, Tina Faye pays Sigourney Weaver $100,000 (American, presumably) to hire a surrogate. White Trash shows up, screws everything up with her common-law husband and moves in. Hilarity ensues. Pretty standard comedy. It's not as clever as 30 Rock, though Tina Faye does play a pretty similar character. The surrogate is an exageration of the stereotypical lower-class, high school dropout. It's well acted.
It's no The Hangover or Bridesmaids, but it's a pretty good way to kill some time if you're in the mood for a comedy that is more suitable for younger viewers than the above mentioned.
Best quote "OH GOD! IT FEELS LIKE I'M SHITTING A KNIFE!"
I'm Dave and this is your virtual reality check.
It's no The Hangover or Bridesmaids, but it's a pretty good way to kill some time if you're in the mood for a comedy that is more suitable for younger viewers than the above mentioned.
Best quote "OH GOD! IT FEELS LIKE I'M SHITTING A KNIFE!"
I'm Dave and this is your virtual reality check.
The Business of Being Born
This is a documentary about midwifery. I know what you're thinking. It's a real word. I promise. Anyway, there are some statistics presented here that are pretty shocking provided that they're true. The history of obstetrics (I'll correct the spelling of that in post-production) is pretty horrifying. Twilight Sleep in particular. They also show a woman giving a water birth, at home, with a midwife, and there was a bunch of grunting, but no screams or drugs involved. She just pooped that baby out in no time. It was pretty amazing.
It was largely a piece about how hospitals make birthing way harder than it needs to be and so on and so forth. Ironically the director's own baby was breach and had to be taken to the hospital to have a c-section as a result. Her doctor was actually very cool with her wanting a home birth though, and was there when she needed him, so everything ended well.
If you're pregnant or trying to become pregnany I would suggest that you give it a watch. It's less than an hour and a half. You can do it!
I'm Dave and this has been your virtual reality check.
It was largely a piece about how hospitals make birthing way harder than it needs to be and so on and so forth. Ironically the director's own baby was breach and had to be taken to the hospital to have a c-section as a result. Her doctor was actually very cool with her wanting a home birth though, and was there when she needed him, so everything ended well.
If you're pregnant or trying to become pregnany I would suggest that you give it a watch. It's less than an hour and a half. You can do it!
I'm Dave and this has been your virtual reality check.
Underworld
So I got home from work today and the wife queues up Underworld on Netflix right after she tells me to look for the Love, Actually DVD, so I know know if this is better or worse for you. But let's get on with it.
I first saw this movie years ago. It does not get better with age. I mean, sure. The vampires want to maintain racial purity. I get that motivation. The "lycans", and they are fooling no one. They are werewolves. Anyway...the leader of the werewolves wants to...make a...mixed race...guy. I guess. And he died with a smile on his lips when it was done. Very weird. And vampires are all coniving, lying, kinslaying bad guys. If you have the option of killing your daughter or killing the husband that you super don't like, who do you choose? Why let them get married in the first place? Bah.
Also, if the vampires are so allegedly superior than humans then why is it that over the course of this movie:
a) a subway train snuck up on the protagonist.
b) werewolf stabbed a giant sword through the hood of the car twice before actually hitting the vampire and having said vampire actually react to any threats from the roof of the car.
c) every time an armed vampire is confronted with a werewolf going through the "change of life" they wait for the wolf to finish before opening up on him.
d) whips? Really? You deserve to have your head eatten.
e) and this point is for both sides, if no one can survive the bite from both a vampire and a werewolf then why the hell are they messing around with neck snapping and swords not just biting each other? Tranq guns filled with their own saliva?
If you just shut the hell up and watch it then it's an OK movie, I guess. But for anyone who doesn't just turn off during a movie there are better movies. Watch Ginger Snaps if you're looking for werewolves. Watch Blackula if you're looking for a vampire movie. Watch Supernatural if you're looking for both because that show is bitching.
This is Dave and this is your virtual reality check.
I first saw this movie years ago. It does not get better with age. I mean, sure. The vampires want to maintain racial purity. I get that motivation. The "lycans", and they are fooling no one. They are werewolves. Anyway...the leader of the werewolves wants to...make a...mixed race...guy. I guess. And he died with a smile on his lips when it was done. Very weird. And vampires are all coniving, lying, kinslaying bad guys. If you have the option of killing your daughter or killing the husband that you super don't like, who do you choose? Why let them get married in the first place? Bah.
Also, if the vampires are so allegedly superior than humans then why is it that over the course of this movie:
a) a subway train snuck up on the protagonist.
b) werewolf stabbed a giant sword through the hood of the car twice before actually hitting the vampire and having said vampire actually react to any threats from the roof of the car.
c) every time an armed vampire is confronted with a werewolf going through the "change of life" they wait for the wolf to finish before opening up on him.
d) whips? Really? You deserve to have your head eatten.
e) and this point is for both sides, if no one can survive the bite from both a vampire and a werewolf then why the hell are they messing around with neck snapping and swords not just biting each other? Tranq guns filled with their own saliva?
If you just shut the hell up and watch it then it's an OK movie, I guess. But for anyone who doesn't just turn off during a movie there are better movies. Watch Ginger Snaps if you're looking for werewolves. Watch Blackula if you're looking for a vampire movie. Watch Supernatural if you're looking for both because that show is bitching.
This is Dave and this is your virtual reality check.
Thursday, 29 December 2011
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: American Remix
So I just got back from seeing new version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie. I saw the first one when it came out in the original...Swedish? Is that a language? Anyway, the first movie (you can tell that I strive for only the pinicle of journalistic integrity for my readership). I haven't read the book and have no interest in the book at all as it's not my kind of leisure reading. Nor is this sort of thing normally my typical movie fare, but in both cases I was impressed. It is a good solid story. Regardless of whether you've seen the original version of this film, I suggest that you go see this movie if you feel that you can spend two and a half hours of your time on a well crafted, if brutal at times, whodunnit.
Spoiler time. Avert your tender, virgin eyes.
Do not take your children to see this movie. If you've read the book you know why. The female protagonist in this film gets brutally raped her state-appointed care-giver (there's really nothing close to it in North American culture as far as I can tell. Maybe parole officer), but then gets revenge on him by sodomizing him and then tattooing "I am a rapist pig" accross his chest. Granted, I've seen these two movies years apart. The only glaring difference that I noticed in the Hollywood version to the original is that at the end, when the bad guy gets into a car accident. In the Swedish version she intentionally and with great malice did cause the car to explode. In the Hollywood version the car exploded on its own. Perhaps that speaks more to the engineering of American cars over European ones. Who am I to say. Anyway, as long as you can stomach the brutal scenes, and don't feel too uncomfortable watching some (consensual) soft-core porn with a theatre full of strangers, then I would say that this movie is something that everyone should see in at least one of its forms.
My name is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
Spoiler time. Avert your tender, virgin eyes.
Do not take your children to see this movie. If you've read the book you know why. The female protagonist in this film gets brutally raped her state-appointed care-giver (there's really nothing close to it in North American culture as far as I can tell. Maybe parole officer), but then gets revenge on him by sodomizing him and then tattooing "I am a rapist pig" accross his chest. Granted, I've seen these two movies years apart. The only glaring difference that I noticed in the Hollywood version to the original is that at the end, when the bad guy gets into a car accident. In the Swedish version she intentionally and with great malice did cause the car to explode. In the Hollywood version the car exploded on its own. Perhaps that speaks more to the engineering of American cars over European ones. Who am I to say. Anyway, as long as you can stomach the brutal scenes, and don't feel too uncomfortable watching some (consensual) soft-core porn with a theatre full of strangers, then I would say that this movie is something that everyone should see in at least one of its forms.
My name is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Episode 24
Super spoilers. I think that this is going to be that sort of blog.
So this episode only escalates from last episode. Lockon is still dead, Dynamis is basically just a torso being driven around by Haro, the robot beachball, Kyrios and Virtue are sorely depleated on energy. The attacking force regroups around a mobile armour that is entirely too large to be practical. And it's shiny gold. So...you know... Anyway, Incredibly Large Mobile Armour has the Super Long Range Death Beam of Death. Fires at the mother ship. The ship explodes and, as near as I can tell, only the three remaining Gundam pilots, the strategist, and two bridge mooks survive. Oh. Kyrios and Nadleeh are also pretty wrecked up in this fight. Exia is out to take on the new Mobile Armour of Incredible Girthiness! And that's where the episode leaves off.
My name is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
So this episode only escalates from last episode. Lockon is still dead, Dynamis is basically just a torso being driven around by Haro, the robot beachball, Kyrios and Virtue are sorely depleated on energy. The attacking force regroups around a mobile armour that is entirely too large to be practical. And it's shiny gold. So...you know... Anyway, Incredibly Large Mobile Armour has the Super Long Range Death Beam of Death. Fires at the mother ship. The ship explodes and, as near as I can tell, only the three remaining Gundam pilots, the strategist, and two bridge mooks survive. Oh. Kyrios and Nadleeh are also pretty wrecked up in this fight. Exia is out to take on the new Mobile Armour of Incredible Girthiness! And that's where the episode leaves off.
My name is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Episode 23
This whole post is going to be pretty full of spoilers, so maybe don't read this until you've seen the episode.
So the United Nations Gundam Extermination Task Force heads into space to do battle with the Heavenly Being mother ship, and with Setsuna still making his way through the atmosphere and with Dynamis out of commission that leaves only two Gundams to defend the base. Both get pinned down pretty quickly; forcing Lockon to load Dynamis into a mobile armour and take it out too. The combined force of the three's counter-attack drives off the attackers, but Lockon learns that the warmonger responsible for killing his family is there and takes off after him. Lots of fighting. Dynamis is crippled even further, the warmonger is killed, and Lockon dies. Setsuna arrives just in time to watch him explode.
This is the first time that I can recall seeing a Gundam pilot die. Granted, there are a lot of Gundam series that I haven't seen, but that being said, this is a pretty big departure. This is, of course, setting up the last remaining Trinity sibling to join the team for reals and for Setsuna to find love, of course, but Haro will never be the same again.
My name is Dave and this has been your virtual reality check.
So the United Nations Gundam Extermination Task Force heads into space to do battle with the Heavenly Being mother ship, and with Setsuna still making his way through the atmosphere and with Dynamis out of commission that leaves only two Gundams to defend the base. Both get pinned down pretty quickly; forcing Lockon to load Dynamis into a mobile armour and take it out too. The combined force of the three's counter-attack drives off the attackers, but Lockon learns that the warmonger responsible for killing his family is there and takes off after him. Lots of fighting. Dynamis is crippled even further, the warmonger is killed, and Lockon dies. Setsuna arrives just in time to watch him explode.
This is the first time that I can recall seeing a Gundam pilot die. Granted, there are a lot of Gundam series that I haven't seen, but that being said, this is a pretty big departure. This is, of course, setting up the last remaining Trinity sibling to join the team for reals and for Setsuna to find love, of course, but Haro will never be the same again.
My name is Dave and this has been your virtual reality check.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Series Review up to Episode 22
My thoughts on this series as a whole are that it clearly takes some very heavy cues from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. If you've read the books and seen this series the parallels are inescapable. In saying that this series does not follow so closely that it is in any way unwatchable or even unenjoyable in its own right.
This series takes place some three hundred years in the future, and the world is split mostly into three large factions. North and South Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia. I think that Japan is neutral in this particular show, and I can't remember which side Australia is with. There is a ring of solar satellites around the Earth and three space elevators. Each faction controls the power output from a third of the solar ring, and one elevator each.
With the shift from fossil fuels to solar energy the countries whose economy is entirely based on oil have collapsed, and war broke out. That particular war is over, but the three factions still see each other in the way North America sees North Korea.
Two hundred years prior to this series ( one hundred years from now for those keeping score) some scientist dude of some renown goes missing with a bunch of other scientists, and no one really seems to question it at the time. Two hundred years later wars are fought with solar powered giant robots (of course). Enter the Gundams. The Gundams are different than the other mobile suits in their power systems. They don't go into the science of it, but it seems to give the Gundams longer run times, make them capable of using more force, and have a side effect that jams communications. They come in, trash the unveiling of a new mobile suit model, and announce to the world that they are there to end war. They then spend the next several months stepping in to armed conflicts, wrecking the place, and then disappearing.
The side of the Gundams seems to rely fairly heavily on predictive capabilities of their computer system built just for that task as well as their tacticians.
This is a pretty big departure from any Gundam series I've seen prior to this one as they've all had very similar themes of man colonizing space, subjugating the space-bound, and the space-bound revolting. This time around there is virtually no one living in space. It's refreshing.
Spoilers after this point. Just saying.
Four months or so into their campaign of ending war with violence, the Gundams are captured by a semi-unified effort of all three earth-bound factions. Then three new Gundams show up and save the day. Huzzah! The new pilots meet with the old crew and proceed to threaten, make out with, and be idolized by the support staff of the Gundams. They then say that they're an independent operation, and begin a campaign that doesn't seem to acknowledge the difference between military and civilian. As far as the Earth is concerned the seven Gundams are all on the same side, though. So everyone is hunting everyone else. Hi-jinx ensue.
A recurring warmonger just offed two of the three pilots of the new Gundams crippled the third, and was accidentally driven off by our emotionally devoid young protagonist who was actually hunting the three, himself.
That takes us pretty well current. I expect to keep watching this series as it is good enough to keep my interest.
This is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
This series takes place some three hundred years in the future, and the world is split mostly into three large factions. North and South Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia. I think that Japan is neutral in this particular show, and I can't remember which side Australia is with. There is a ring of solar satellites around the Earth and three space elevators. Each faction controls the power output from a third of the solar ring, and one elevator each.
With the shift from fossil fuels to solar energy the countries whose economy is entirely based on oil have collapsed, and war broke out. That particular war is over, but the three factions still see each other in the way North America sees North Korea.
Two hundred years prior to this series ( one hundred years from now for those keeping score) some scientist dude of some renown goes missing with a bunch of other scientists, and no one really seems to question it at the time. Two hundred years later wars are fought with solar powered giant robots (of course). Enter the Gundams. The Gundams are different than the other mobile suits in their power systems. They don't go into the science of it, but it seems to give the Gundams longer run times, make them capable of using more force, and have a side effect that jams communications. They come in, trash the unveiling of a new mobile suit model, and announce to the world that they are there to end war. They then spend the next several months stepping in to armed conflicts, wrecking the place, and then disappearing.
The side of the Gundams seems to rely fairly heavily on predictive capabilities of their computer system built just for that task as well as their tacticians.
This is a pretty big departure from any Gundam series I've seen prior to this one as they've all had very similar themes of man colonizing space, subjugating the space-bound, and the space-bound revolting. This time around there is virtually no one living in space. It's refreshing.
Spoilers after this point. Just saying.
Four months or so into their campaign of ending war with violence, the Gundams are captured by a semi-unified effort of all three earth-bound factions. Then three new Gundams show up and save the day. Huzzah! The new pilots meet with the old crew and proceed to threaten, make out with, and be idolized by the support staff of the Gundams. They then say that they're an independent operation, and begin a campaign that doesn't seem to acknowledge the difference between military and civilian. As far as the Earth is concerned the seven Gundams are all on the same side, though. So everyone is hunting everyone else. Hi-jinx ensue.
A recurring warmonger just offed two of the three pilots of the new Gundams crippled the third, and was accidentally driven off by our emotionally devoid young protagonist who was actually hunting the three, himself.
That takes us pretty well current. I expect to keep watching this series as it is good enough to keep my interest.
This is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
Shiny and new.
Hello, folks. My name is Dave, and this is the virtual reality check. I plan on using this blog to review, comment, and provide opinions on movies, television shows, and video games. Perhaps other things. First and foremost this is a forum to start writing again, as I haven't been doing much of that since college, and I thought that I might like to start again. You all take care of yourselves. I'll be back soon.
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