Shmee.Me

May 6, 2013September 9, 2013

Blog Post #100!

This is the 100th post on my blog, and I would like to thank all of you that have read my reviews and rants about whatever I could think of. It has been a lot of fun, and I thought for sure I would have given up by now, but I am still going.

If you were to actually to go through and count my posts you would find that there are a couple more than 100 posts, but that is because there are a couple of posts just to say that I didn’t have anything to say that day, so I just didn’t count them, and if you did count them all then you are a crazy person.

I would like to thank you all for the interest in my book. A lot of people downloaded it, but I have not heard from that many, so if you have anything to say good or bad please let me know, but the reviews I have gotten so far have been positive other then the fact it still needs quite a bit of red ink.

If there is anything you would like me to review or talk about please let me know, and one again thank you to the 331 of you that have checked out my site.

May 5, 2013May 5, 2013

Star Trek stages an Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection is a 1998 film and the ninth Star Trek feature film. It is the second film to use only the Next Generation cast, and it is directed by Jonathon Frakes. Does it live up to the standard set buy First Contact? It sadly does not.

The films starts out with Commander Data going crazy and attacking his fellow Star Fleet members while monitoring an apparently less developed race the Ba’Ku, and then holds the Star Fleet members captive. Admiral Matthew Dougherty then calls Captain Picard for the Data’s schematics, so they can find a way to turn him off. Picard thinks something sounds a little off and then goes to the Ba’Ku home world to investigate, and of course he finds that all is not as it seems.

The main problem with this movie is the plot. It sounds kind of original when I condense it like that, but it is not. This movie is like several episodes that Star Trek: The Next Generation has done before, and what is so depressing is that in the movie they discuss needing every new race available to join the Federation so they can defend against the Borg and the Dominion, and either of those bad guys would have made a better movie than this, but instead we get a recycled and forgettable script from the TV show. I suppose we should be thankful it is a better then average episode.

The cast continues to do their jobs well, and they know how to play their characters. One of the nice things about this story is that planet rejuvenates people, so they all get to act young and a little silly. Jonathan Frakes continues to be a steady hand behind the camera and proves that he is a good director.

I liked Star Trek: Insurrection more this time I watched it, but I think it is because I hadn’t watched the show in so long that watching a longer then average episode of Star Trek: TNG wasn’t as disappointing, but still it is a shame that they hit a home run with all the same people in their previous outing, and they go and follow it up with a bunt.

May 4, 2013May 4, 2013

I Give Blade Runner a Second Chance

Blade Runner is the landmark 1982 Sci-Fi film by Ridley Scott. This movie has always been a source of conflict for me because it has things I like in a movie, a realistic dystopian future, a film noir atmosphere, and Harrison Ford at the top of his career, but I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, but since it is held in such high regard, and the Blu-Ray was five dollars on Amazon, I decided to give it another try.

The film is about a special type of police officer a Blade Runner that hunts down and ‘retires’ (kills) replicated human type beings (Replicants). This is because the Replicants had rebelled against their creators and thus banished from Earth. Harrison Ford plays Richard Decker a Blade Runner that has been enlisted to find four Replicants that have come to Earth to try and find the key to live past their four year lifespans.

Despite the Sci-Fi trappings, this is really just a Film Noir Detective Movie from the 1940s but made in the 1980’s, and that is probably why I didn’t like it the first time I watched it because these type of movies take their time to set the mood, drink a lot of whiskey, and be generally unhappy, and in my youth I didn’t have the patience for such things, but this time I was much more contented to let the movie suck me in. Like many good detective films this movie doesn’t answer all the questions it asks, and the people in the movie are no better off when the movie ends than when it started.

The best part of this movie is by far the set and production design: the always dark and rainy LA with the over crowding and neon Asian signs. It just seems like a real place, and you can tell why this movie set the look for so many films and shows that followed. Firefly and the new Total Recall to name a couple. Between this movie and Alien Ridley Scott cemented his place as one of Sci-Fi’s greatest film makers.

I liked this movie much more the second time I watched it. It blends the Sci-Fi setting and the Film Noir style so well that I am ashamed to have disliked it so much the first time I watched it. Maybe there are more films I need to revisit.

May 3, 2013May 3, 2013

Can you defeat The Man with the Iron Fists?

The Man with the Iron Fists is a Kung-Fu action movie written, directed, and stared in by Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA. He has created sound tracks for several movies, mostly by Quentin Tarantino, but can he translate that experience into successfully creating a full film? It is a valiant fist try, but it comes up a little short.

The movie’s plot is fairly simple. The Governor of the province is shipping gold through a town named Jungle Village. This town happens to be caught between a never ending conflict with its warring clans, so the Governor pays one of the clans to protect the gold, but things go quickly wrong, and soon it is every man for himself in Jungle Village.

This movie starts off great with a Kung-Fu fight choreographed with a killer Hip Hop beat, and if the whole movie would have been like this it would have been an instant action cult classic, but sadly it looses its way. When people are not fighting in this movie it is stilted and boring.

Most of the actors handle the action of this movie well, but once that talking starts they are awful. With the notable exceptions of Lucy Liu and Russell Crowe. They seem to having a great time in this movie being. It is like they are on vacation in a bad movie or something and it is wonderful to watch them. They took on their roles with vigor and kind of just went for it.

The Man with the Iron Fists could have been a great movie, but as it is it is just an amusing movie with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu having a good time. It is a shame it couldn’t live up to the first few minutes of the movie.

May 2, 2013

Should You Subscribe to Funimation?

I was finding the anime selection on Netflix and Amazon lacking, so I decided to try the one month free trial to Funimation a large anime distributor, and after a month I can tell you that this is one of the worst streaming services out there.

When I went on the site it did look like they had a lot content with some shows I had never seen before, and your supposed to be able to watch it in its native language with subtitles or dubbed in English even as it comes out in Japan, but the problem is that the site is so slow you can’t really watch any of it. It is all stuttery, and the site is super slow to even search the site for shows to watch in the first place.

I love the idea of a good anime streaming service, but Funimation is not it. I hope they can figure it out, and maybe I will try it out again later after they have worked on their service a bit, but for now no one should use their service.