Got into a rhythm on the current project and it ate up my time seated in front of the computer monitor this last few days. Usually I flex my hands and brain with bloggery or email or surfing the net when I first sit down, and surely I waste too much energy on those, but not so much since Thursday.It's not like working on the chain gang and the road boss standing over you with a shotgun, but there is a certain drive to keep the pick or hammer swinging once you establish a rhythm ...
On the home front: ebook for Bristlecone is actually selling pretty well. Weather is beautiful -- pushing eighty and sunny here yesterday.
Coffee pot gave up the ghost this morning. Heater element burned out, and given the nature of such devices, cheaper to buy a new one than to locate a replacement element -- assuming they make those after six years, which they probably don't -- and take it apart to fix it. It's a nice unit, but black plastic and I'm not that much in love with it.
Probably take a break this weekend and go see Ironman II with my son and grandson.
And the beat goes on.
I did my part to support the iPad fund by buying Bristlecone. I then proceeded to read it on my iPad all night. It seemed appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI liked Iron Man II, or at least the character interaction between Stark & Potts.
ReplyDeleteThe story line so so, fairly predictable, and Sacr-Jo's action scenes at the end were a trifle over acted...
But I liked it overall, and will go see more Marvel Universe movies.
Steve, what did you think, and did you wait for the clip after the credits had finished rolling at the end?
I gave Iron Man II a B -- popcorn summer movie, turn off your brain at the door and enjoy the ride. Downey has the role nailed, and the NIck Fury stuff was fun.
ReplyDeleteI always watch the credits until the house lights come up, have forever, and so I caught the, ah ... artifact.
Funniest lines in the movie was Hammer's character, Sam Rockwell, describing his ultimate missile, the Ex-Wife.
(Funniest line in the theater came from the audience. They ran the trailer for Twilight Eclipse, with all the pretty boy vampires and werewolves, and as the sound and picture faded, a deep male voice yelled out, "I love you Edward!" Cracked everybody up.)
Rourk was good as the villain, but I thought the final fight scene was a little short and flat. Plenty of things getting blowed up real good, but that takedown? Needed more. Almost anticlimactic.
There will be an IM3, you can bet.
Haven't read Bristlecone yet. Intend to, though.
ReplyDeleteSaw Ironman 2. Like you, Steve and Ian, enjoyed it, but didn't think it was outstanding. I thought Mickey Rourke did a great job. I heard (unsubstantiated) that he said he studied for his part, but didn't know what the movie was about. Amusing if true, though unlikely given the integral part his character played. Rockwell as Hammer played the part beautifully. I wish I felt the same for Nick Fury. Jackson's characters are all starting to sound alike. Watch him here and watch Shaft if you don't believe me.
Coffee technology has come a long way lately. Of course, you're still soaking ground up seeds in water to get an infusion of stimulant. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that there's only so far you can push it. But take the chance to read up on new coffee pots. There are some nifty ones out there.
I liked Iron Man 2 but not as much as I liked the original. I did appreciate how, unlike most sequels, it wasn't just a ton of explosions and fighting. They could have easily made a movie where Iron Man blew stuff up for 2 hours.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how the fight seen with Rourke at the end was relatively short. I'm sick of 20 minute fight sequences.
My problem with the final fight scene is that it breaks the Big Payoff Rule. If you spend the whole movie setting up what a bad ass the villain is, when it comes to the showdown, you have to pay that off. It doesn't have to be twenty minutes long, but it is supposed to be the final, hardest, and most difficult obstacle.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, it wasn't.
Sure, Iron Man and Rhodey blow up drones left and right and the EFX are satisfyingly loud and bright, but it's like a samurai movie -- the good guy wades through the bad guy's minions like sheep, and when he comes face-to-face with the bad guy, that's when the serious action really begins.
If the sheep are harder to deal with than the wolf? Anti-climax.
Not to spoil the ending -- though that would be pretty hard, given that every summer movie has the same ending -- when Vanko shows up in a suit that is a newer, better model than Stark's and Rhodey's, knocking them down a couple times before they blow him up? Doesn't pay off the premise that he's the real threat. Sure, he made the robots, but it was established that he was a hands-on player and when it got to that?
Didn't deliver enough for me.
If the Terminator gets back up after you hit him with a truck, he's not much of a villain.
Stark's solution to take out Vanko was, for me, pretty lame.
We grind our coffee beans, so all we need is a melita filter on top a carafe and a teakettle. Probably do it that way for awhile, that's easy enough.
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