A Caution To Everyone

At the behest of a friend, I will give a brief review of the latest Indiana Jones movie. There may be spoilers, but they would only preempt the ruination of the film for you anyway, if you decide to see it.

It was awful. Plain, profound crap. I'm convinced that the special effects/screenwriting budget is undefined, because you can't divide by zero. Harrison Ford & Co. did fairly well for the characters and lines they were given. Shia TheBeef is even spared my ire because I recognize that his character never had a chance because the writers of the movie ruined it before he was even cast as Mutt Williams. He wasn't given the opportunity to ruin it himself, as he did so ably in the supremely disappointing film remake of Louis Sachar's intersting children's novel Holes. While I sensed an attempt to spoof the anti-Communist media of the late 1950s, it was half-assed and embarassing. The entire film reeked of 3rd grade gag-humor (TheBeef gets whacked in the gonads by plants a few times during one particular pursuit scene). Seeing as there's nothing more than a couple curse words (all unnecessary to the plot), the PG-13 rating of the movie served to strengthen the insult to the intelligence of nearly any possible moviegoer. To conclude, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull falls squarely into the category of "must-miss," if at all possible.

As an addendum, I was so disappointed by the IJ movie that I decided to have a little film shock-therapy and watch The Last King of Scotland in the university theater. It is a very good movie (Forest Whitaker deserves the high marks he received for his portrayal of Idi Amin) and salvaged my night from a movies standpoint.

Cheers.

Poised

A brief reflection.

I lie on my bed, staring at a hat that hangs precariously on the end of its hook. It is as far out on its plastic limb as gravity will allow it to sit. It sways gently, unmoved, caressed by the air from a fan in my room. The slightest touch--poltergeist's breath--would surely send it to the floor. Yet it remains poised on the end of is hook.

I will not touch it. I will let it decide whether or not it will drop, lose its battle with gravity.

An FYI

I hate clichés as much as the next guy (actually, probably more than the next guy), but I would nonetheless like to share this bit of carpe diem-like anecdote.

Here's the long and short of it: there are a bunch of dead stars--white dwarfs (or dwarves; both are acceptable)--relatively near us in space (within a few dozen light-years). When the high gravity in these objects pulls enough material into them to cross a certain threshold (known as the Chandrasekhar Limit), they collapse, and the result is a nova or supernova, which blows away anything within a few light years of them and disrupts things a few dozen light years away. These events can't be accurately predicted or stopped. So, if one of these were to happen, it'd be curtains for us. Yes, we wouldn't be around anyway if it weren't for those events, but still...

There's a mother-to-child phrase that seems to apply: "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it!"

Now, have a nice day.

The Times We Live In?

A friend notified me of the following Youtube video: a news story about a seven year old boy who had stolen his grandmother's SUV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLeVlBca5lg&feature=related

Don't get me wrong; the video is hilarious because the thought of seeing two little kids joyriding in a huge SUV is just absurd. However, my fuddy-duddy nature forces me to see this as a distressing sign of the decline of morality in society.

The newest version of the hit video game "Grand Theft Auto" was released recently, and a couple friends of mine have begun playing it. I was watching some people play it earlier today, carjacking people, shooting police officers and doing other brutal things around Liberty City (which is a dead ringer for New York City). The game rewards robbing and killing people because you can pick up the money you have on your character's person and add it to your own cache.

Am I interested in banning this game or curbing freedom of speech and expression? Absolutely not. All I am saying is that the people who create games like this need to recognize that they have a burden of social responsibility. Because frankly, some parents are not savvy enough to keep their children from being negatively influenced by things like this. Strict ratings on video games are necessary.

After I watched my fraternity brothers playing the game earlier, they were kind enough to drive me back to my dorm. As we drove, we joked about slamming into cars that were parked on the street near us. Now, we all have good grips on reality and would never be led to mistake the light, essentially nonexistent consequences in a video game for the enormous consequences in real life. But not all people have the same kind of grip on reality. Crime sprees that seem to mimic situations in these games are evidence of what can happen to people who cannot make that separation so easily. The line gets blurred. I suppose my point here is that it's up to those with the creativity to be responsible. This burden of responsibility should not be regarded as a hindrance, but sadly the egotists who seem to possess that creativity are reluctant to accept the responsibility. I guess it's the times we live in...