Towards Mecca

Yesterday I was preparing myself for another long Wednesday at the office. You see, Wednesdays are release days for our former video game project, which means we have to come up with a playable version to send off to the Executive Producer for scrutiny. I say former video game project because, unfortunately, we were informed yesterday that our project was canned.

“Well technically it’s on hold” said my producer while rolling his eyes even though he did admit that there was a chance the project might be picked up by another group in the near future. He also assured us that we did a good job and that no one was displeased with the project itself, they just couldn’t sell it to any online cell-phone carriers. In other words, good job but not good enough.

I was so saddened by the news that, when I woke up this morning, the first words out of my mouth were “They canceled my project”. I’ve worked on this project for 3 months and I still believe in it. I can only imagine how people working on year-long (and longer) canceled projects must feel. That’s a big chunk of someone’s adult lifetime with nothing to show for.

Still, we were less than a month away from Beta, we were always on time, we had weekly positive feedback, and the project was really looking interesting and unique! Maybe that was our downfall. Maybe the industry isn’t mature enough for unique yet. Maybe we just need to work on generic “me too” titles to find a place in this cut-throat industry.

I refuse to believe that, bring on the next project!

Before you ask the inevitable question, my wife made me watch this movie! I didn’t have any interest in a movie that features two old fossils that I had never heard of before or since (I have seen this movie in the early 90’s but for the life of me I couldn’t remember any of it). Still, since I did sit through the entire thing, might as well share my thoughts on it.

To start, this is going to sound very bad, but I have a hard time accepting a 50+ year old love interest. I have to admit, Ann Margaret did look stunning for her age, but every time the two old farts went crazy for her I was reminded that this movie was intended for an older audience. This isn’t a bad thing, even old people should have movies, but does my wife have to make me watch them? There are TONS of movies out there made for teenagers that I dutifully skip (and, come to think of it, skipped even when I was a teenager).

I have to admit, both Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau did a great job acting. So much so that I was convinced throughout the movie that I was in fact watching 2 old grumpy men that can’t stand each other! The chemistry between the actors was palpable (and left me with an over-whelming sweet-decaying taste in my mouth).

The plot was very typical and predictable, but that can be forgiven for a movie of this caliber. The music score was well chosen with many great classics making a mark (Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ leading the way). The bloopers after the credits weren’t funny at all except for the comments by Grandpa Gustafson (Burgess Meredith)

Grumpiness aside (pun regrettably intended), the movie did have some high notes and a few laughs. It was definitely not all bad, it’s just that I would have rather watched a whole slew of other movie. Or better yet, played some more Call of Duty 4!

I’m a big Pixar fan. Ever since Toy Story I’ve seen every Pixar movie in theaters sometimes more than once, and I own all of them on DVD. It’s true, in my eyes, they can do no wrong. I’m warning you, this review is very biased but there’s nothing I could do about it.

I sat down to watch Ratatouille for maybe the third or fourth time and it’s still as entertaining and gorgeous as the first. That, my friends, is a sign of an instant classic.

The animation was, simply put, amazing! This fictional, digital rodent had more life in him than most block-buster actors in the industry! The talented people at Pixar breathed virtual life into 0’s and 1’s and Remy the Rat was born. At least that’s how it felt. Despite the cartoony look of the movie, the rats looked and felt real down to their noses twitching involuntarily (but don’t blink or you’ll miss it). This movie was obviously a labor of love every step of the way.

Now I’m not a rat enthusiast but I was once disgusted by the hairy little things. My wife wanted pet rats though, and as usual, I gave in to her pleadings only to find that I never really had any reason to dislike them. Yes, you read right, my wife had 2 pet rats. And not just caged rats, the little buggers would crawl all over her and stay on her shoulder as she went about her daily routine.

As much as I love this movie, I wouldn’t recommend it to my own mother. She’s an extreme rodent hater. She’d gag by just looking at the box cover … ok maybe I’m taking it too far but she’d definitely not enjoy the movie and would mutter “disgusting” and “ewww” every five seconds under her breath.

Musophobes aside, this is a movie for everyone! One that the wife, kids and pets would enjoy … just don’t take your mother

Ok, so it’s been almost a month since my last (and first) post but I honestly simply forgot I had a blog I’m not sure if that actually makes things any better or worse but it’s the truth so tough! Well onto the review…

I’d like to start by saying that I’m not particularly a ‘Westerns’ fan. I don’t dislike Westerns but I don’t go gaga over them either. That said, I really like both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale as actors so I really did want to like this movie going into it. The last good Western I’ve seen was Unforgiven and that was over a decade and a half ago, I thought it was time for another good one.

3:10 to Yuma had a better than average start. I sympathized with the characters almost immediately and was genuinely interested in their decisions and outcomes. Both Bale’s and Crowe’s characters were intriguing in their own way and the story didn’t strike me as the usual, predictable, cookie-cutter Hollywood quick-cash maker. Even at the half-way mark, I was very absorbed by the plot and could not decide what outcome I thought would befall the duo.

[SPOILER WARNING]

Sadly, the movie ended in a totally uninspired and ridiculously unbelievable “bad guy turns good” scenario that had a self-proclaimed rotten ruthless killer surrendering himself to the authorities symbolically after cold-heartedly and single-handedly killing his own posse, and this, after they had rescued him. Then, to top it all off, there was an even more ridiculous hint at a possible escape in the end that just left my head spinning!

It’s not that I don’t understand what was meant by it all. Wade (Crowe’s character) wanted to show William that his father (Bale) was a Hero. I understand that. This is something that a decent person would definitely WANT to do but would surely NOT have risked his life and limb for. Especially seeing as how the ‘Hero’ in question despises you, wants to see you brought to justice, is a complete stranger, can offer no rewards in terms of money or power, and isn’t even a possible love-interest (since Crowe’s character was obviously very straight).

Ironically, I believe that if this movie had a more typical Hollywood ‘good guy kills bad-guy and gets the girl’ ending instead of this nonsense, I might have actually considered it to be worth a rental for its setting and acting alone. I might have even settled for a less-typical ‘good guy dies and son gets revenge’ ending. As it stands, I don’t understand at what point someone thought this ending would actually be a good idea.

[/END SPOILER]

All in all, avoid this movie unless you don’t plan on watching the ending because of time constraints or Attention Deficit Disorder or whatever other reason you can come up with….

I’ve been avoiding the whole blog thing ever since it started to pick-up speed. I’ve always loved to write but blogs felt too much like online diaries and the idea of strangers reading my most intimate opinions was too unsettling. I’ve since seen blogs to be what they truly are: an alternative news and views source to the cut-and-paste, mundane, non-sense that passes for mainstream online content these days.

Also, I feel I can truly contribute unique content and point of views on a variety of subjects. I mean, I’m Iraqi born, Canadian, Muslim, my first name is Osama, I’m married to a beautiful Canadian-Italian, I’m expecting my first child, I’m a game designer, I play sports, I’m a movie and comic enthusiast. I’ve worked as a Graphic/Web Designer, Technical Support Agent, Maritime Shipping Agent, Retail store Clerk, Newspaper Delivery Boy and more… There’s so much more to me that I can’t think of right now.

Anyway, this is more an experiment than anything else. Let’s see if I will even keep up with it