Monkey Thoughts

From the CNN article on the CNN Center shooting

The suspect warned Williams, "Get out my way, pimpin'."

"I knew you don't say that to someone unless you got something," said Williams

Wait, what? Get out of my way, pimpin? That is threatening how? How does that imply anything? Since when did "pimpin" become a noun, and a noun that symbolizes that the user of the word is carrying a loaded weapon?

I'm so lost.

One of the dual benefits/drawbacks to having kids is being subjected to their TV programming tastes. Unless you're one of those parents that believe TV is evil and is strictly prohibited. (For the record, I don't think that really works. I had a professor whose parents did that. He spent his early college years doing nothing but catching up on the 18 years of TV he missed.) It's a benefit in that you can get away with watching cartoons and no one seems to say anything. "Oh, you have a kid...that explains it." For the record, I'd watch cartoons even if I didn't have kids, although I find the current selection of cartoons lacking quality. The drawback is sometimes the kids don't have good taste in cartoons.
For example..there's the whole Yu-gi-oh/Naruto genre of cartoons. I can't stand those. They're like cartoon soaps, but with a fantasy element. A lot of serious stares and close ups.
Then there's the preschool genre. Blue Clues (the Steve years) is good. Dora is not too bad even though there's a lot of staring at the screen. And Boots is an ass monkey. But Go Diego, Go. Why my son likes this show is BEYOND me- other than the fact that he's two of course. It has too many lame songs. There's no content in the show, so someone decided to fill it with stupid songs. They spent about a minute on this episode singing "Waa Waa!" over and over again. I guess they wanted to have a boy counterpart to Dora. Either way, it's total shit. Yet, still not as bad as talking hands.

I've seen marketing for this movie as "Scarier than Hostel". I'm here to say right here and now, it isn't anything like Hostel. It is the anti-Hostel. It is the suck. First off, it's easy to tell who is going to make it and who's gonna die. Second, there really isn't much in terms of tension, fright or story line. As for the gore, there's been worse things shown on the Discovery Channel.
All in all, this is a complete miss of a movie.

It's not that I have a problem with Marilyn Manson. I actually like some of his music.

It's just that I think perhaps he's a wee bit old to be doing the whole "I'M SCARY AND DARK" act.

And for shits and giggles...I present an oldie but goodie-

Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-To-Door Trying To Shock People

OVERLAND PARK, KS-Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has been touring suburbia in a last-ditch effort to shock Americans.

I hate that term. So why do I insist on using it?

One of the After Dark films, this one was actually one I wanted to see in the theater. Kinda glad I didn't now.

It's not that the story line was so bad. Corpse has bad juju. Juju kills people.
But the writing...oh dear lord, the writing. The dialog was just utter asstastic. Cringe worthy in spots, WTF in other spots. And near the end, it took a dark turn for the worst, complete with one of those "Blah blah blah, bitch!" climatic lines.

What gets me is the whole advertising behind After Dark. Films so horrible they couldn't get shown to the public. Only, they meant horrible as in disturbing and graphic, not as in a suck ass film. But with the exception of Rinne, what I've seen so far has been utterly horrible. This film was neither gory or disturbing. Sure, I hid a few times. But that's because I'm a wimp. I used to hide from Scooby-Doo for crying out loud.

Anyway...this is a definite miss.

And since when do ashes of human remains look like clumps of dirt?

What can I say about Smokin' Aces? Nice cast. Alica Keys wasn't bad. I didn't even recognize Jason Bateman. Well, I did, but it was in terms of "Why does that dude look familiar?" And Ryan Reynolds just kicks ass. Oh, and the stranger from When a Stranger Calls is in this. Considering you see his face for a whole 3 seconds in When a Stranger Calls, I'm quite surprised I was able to point that one out.

But the movie...hmmm... See, they advertised this movie as this sort of flashy, funny, action flick in the vein of the Ocean's movies. It's an action movie with some humorous parts, but it's not like the Ocean flicks at all. In fact, it starts of amusing and then goes all serious on you. And you want to make the jokes, but there is none to be had.

So, good for the action. Just don't expect the jokes.

I held the opinion that it was too soon to make a movie about 9/11. It seemed like more exploitation than anything else. But still, this movie peaked my curiosity and I decided to watch it from one of the movie channels this weekend.

One thing I really liked about this film was the sort of documentary type feel. It seemed to be going in real time from location to location. Unlike the A&E version, there wasn't a lot of character buildup. Which sounds strange to say...how can you build character on a person that existed and on events that are pieced together? Regardless of what it would be called, in the A&E, you got some extensive background on everyone, whereas in this, they're just presented as passengers. It's hard to watch something like this when you ultimately know the outcome. There's still tension. There's still the urge to tell them "Don't open the door!" But you don't, because you know what's gonna happen. And even with the sort of jumpy feel from location to location, it didn't disrupt the flow of the movie.
It was definitely worth the watch. It's interesting to watch something like this and just try to place yourself in that position. It wasn't preachy....just raw and real feeling.

Of course, if you're a conspiracy theorist, you will hate this movie and should avoid it.
Oh, and the moon landing was fake too, by the way. Soylent Green? People. Now you know.