:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

Something else I realized when I saw "Matrix: Reloaded;" I need a girlfriend like Trinity. And no, it's not because she's really hot and looks great in skintight black leather. It's because she's loving, fiercely loyal, athletic, knows how to straddle that line between devotion and independence, and in turn demands loyalty, and knows how to push her man into becoming more than just the sum of his parts. And in the unlikely case of say, getting into a brawl on a date with some thugs, she totally has your back. Did I mention that she looks great in skintight black leather? No wonder guys like her. But never mind all that, I just have a thing for tall brunettes with blue-green eyes. Anyone know a girl that fits the above discription? =)

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 11:38 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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Having seen "The Matrix: Reloaded" twice now, I have to admit to having mixed feelings about it. Overall, even relative to my fairly high expectations, I did enjoy the movie but I can't help but feel that Wachowski Brothers really dropped the ball. Several things about the movie that others had complaints about, the "rave" scene, the "Neo's perspective" CGI work, the love story, the overlong expository dialogues, none of that really bothered me. In fact, a lot of that actually made perfect sense. I did feel some of the Kung Fu stuff went too long but it didn't irk me greatly either since the "Matrix" films, at its heart, are Chinese style Kung Fu movies and those types of films try to incorporate fight scenes as much as possible.

The intellectual/philosophical ramblings of various characters weren't the problems either, and it really surprised me that people would complain about this since moviegoers have been complaining for years that summer action movies have become nothing more than big, dumb, explosion-fests. Now that someone does deliver a mind stimulating movie that doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence, people are complaining that it's too hard to follow? Please.

The biggest problem with "Matrix: Reloaded" is it's almost total lack of soul. It's equivalent to an Yngwie Malmsteen guitar solo: amazingly proficient, technical virtuosity defined but delivered with a complete lack of emotion. I think the directors caught George Lucas Syndrome and tried too hard to outdo both everyone and themselves with the special effects and wire-fu. The story (yes, there was one) was good, a logical follow up to the original. For that matter the script wasn't bad either. The acting, well, again I blame the directors. Everyone in the movie was rather... cold. Really, did Neo, Trinity and Morhpeus have to be so impassive all the time? What made the characters engaging in the first film was missing: Neo's palpable state of confusion, Trinity's fear of realizing her prophecy of falling in love with The One, Morpheus' desperate search for humanities new Messiah; even Agent Smith's wisecracking, his proselytizing on the nature of the human race, and his almost human desire to accomplish his mission so he can be removed from the Matrix. Here, it seems everyone is comfortable in their roles and they aren't really interested in deviating too far from their particular box. Neo and Trinity display some passion for each other but on their own, we're left with little to care about. He's clearly indestructible, she can open mean can of whoop-a** on a group of security guards. Also, I'm one of the few (if not only) people who believe that Keanu Reeves isn't nearly as terrible an actor as most people make him out to be. While he'll never win an Oscar he'll turn in a good performance given the right director and script. In that aspect, he's let down by the directors of this film. He has little more to do than look cool and displaying his fighting prowess.

The Wachowski's really shot themselves in the foot by going overboard with the visuals. There's so much going on screen that it tends to distract from the dialogue and much of that exposition is key to understanding sustance of the overall. There are several points that the Oracle and the Architect make that, taken in context with some things said in the first film, make perfect sense. It's almost as if they didn't trust their own material to carry itself and believed that cranking the eye candy to 11 was the only way to get their point across. It's a film that had all the components in place to be considered great, a modern classic like the first film. As it is now, it's merely a good film. More than any other "middle" movie of a trilogy - compared to films like "Empire Strikes Back," "The Godfather: Part II," and maybe even "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" - it really needs the first and last film for one to be able to appreciate it.

And despite its problems, I still enjoyed it. While the end product could have been better, I had to admire the film and it's makers for their ambition in what they were attempting to convey. I'm just hoping that "Matrix: Revolutions" blows my hair back the way the first film did.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 4:50 AM [+] :: | 0 comments
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Last weekend was a great one for me. I flew over to Boston and got to see my kid brother graduate from Boston College. With honors even. Something laude, I forget which (he was always the smarter of the two of us). I was very proud of him, not just because he graduated but because of his new career choice. He initially wanted to get into law school after BC but he told me that he's going to pursue a career in education. Something in the field of school administration. I figured that as much of a disappointment as I've been to the family, the last thing we need to tarnish the family name any further is a lawyer.

Boston is a beautiful city, it has a very historic feel to everything. Even the newer buildings look like they were built before the 1900's. It was also very green with trees lining almost every street we drove on. One of the places we visited was the harbor near downtown Boston that contained what has to be the ultimate food court. They had everything there, and I'm not talking about stuff like Panda Express, Long John Silver's, and other mall food court staples. From what I saw, a lot of the places sold restaurant-quality stuff, just without the servers. Now about the food, I mean, that what these trips are about right? I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder in a bread bowl at this seaside place called Joe's Bar and Grill and it was great. Their oysters and lobster quesadilla was good, too. The next night was steak night as my bro, like me, is an avowed carnivore. We dined at this place called Longhorn Steakhouse. I ordered the 16 oz ribeye (charred rare) and it was most excellent. Better than say, the fairly decent steak at a Black Angus.

Boston College itself is very beautiful, expansive, campus with some very picturesque scenery. The architecture is very beautiful in that 1800's sort of way and found it amusing how it contrasted with the football stadium. Springtime seems to be the best season to visit since everything is in bloom and the weather wasn't too hot or humid. To commemorate the weekend, I picked up a shotglass from the student store so I can proudly display a symbol of my kids bro's college.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 10:43 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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I am the funniest tennis player on the planet, and it has nothing to do with my sense of humor. I played a couple of times since last Thursday and both days just happened to be "one of those days." You athletic types know what I'm talking about. You know those days where the oddest things happen, or perhaps nothing seems to be going your way. Well, I was having a pretty decent game on both days when this happens; I set up for a forehand, I swing and... nothing. Strike. Whiff. Fan. I completely missed the ball. Twice (in one day). Three times total. And the sad thing was, these weren't hit at me particularly hard either. One of them was a little floater that any level 1.5 player could pound for a winner. I want to say that I took my eyes off the ball, or perhaps got a little too eager to make a fantastic shot but this being me, it just can't be that simple. Maybe stars were misaligned, or maybe there was a sudden gust of wind, or perhaps the tennis gods were displaying their sense of humor or something.

I guess I could share another tenns court folly that, in retrospect, is kinda humorous (it wasn't at the time, believe me.) I was playing a set of doubles, my team was up by a game and it was my turn to serve. I was playing pretty well up until this point and then, I just hit a wall. I lost that game eventually but not until it went to about nine or ten deuces and I committed six double faults. Now, even for amateurs that's hard to do. Especially when you take into consideration that in theory, it only takes four serves to win a game. That day, I missed TWELVE. And that's not including the first serves I missed. Again, that's something that is really hard to do. It takes a certain amount of ability to accomplish such a feat and while I don't possess that ability, I somehow managed it anyway.

I am the funniest tennis player on the planet.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 2:25 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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