Indiana Jones 4: Judgment Day

I saw an "extended" preview on Fox last night. Just a regular trailer, but with all the secrecy of the film, and the quick, short trailers I was used to, this longer one was great.

Especially since we've got DVR. I slowed it down and noticed a few things.

I knew Karen Allen was in it, but I didn't know how much. I saw her in a car/boat that went off a cliff, and then maybe in the same vehicle going over a waterfall. In that vehicle also were Indy himself, Shia LaBeouf, another guy, and I believe Indy's friend who visited him at the school where he teaches in the first and third films.

Indy's friend looked like he had long hair! But maybe it wasn't him. It has been 18 years, after all, and he already seemed a tad bit old. But maybe...

In a previous ad, I'd seen a crate marked with "Roswell." I'd read that originally the film was meant to be about outer space and stuff. But Spielberg and Ford said no.

However, in the ad last night, it looked like we were seeing the same place where the crate had been filed away from the end of Raiders. That gigantic warehouse? Well, in the ad, two massive doors open. It looks like a hangar. And on the two doors is the number 51. Area 51, Baby!

In the ad, they said an evil empire wanted the newest weapon. If it's not Nazis, then who?

Harrison Ford still looks great. Long live Indiana Jones.

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Smallville Episodes Are Like Movies

One or two seasons ago, when "Smallville" tried to play up the superhero universe idea and introduced a bunch of random superheroes to the show, it seemed like it was getting pretty corny. But then, they strayed from that path, and even reduced some of the dialogue. The direction took an entirely new route, and focused on visual spectacle, and implicit dramatic meaning in the action. The show regained it's lost glory, and soared to new heights.

I just watched the latest episode (I believe) in which Clark visits a parallel world where he never existed, where Lana Lang is married, and where Lex Luthor is President. The Luthors discovered Kara's ship and indoctrinated her into the Luthor lifestyle. She now serves Lex, who is being controlled by Brainiac, and who ultimately nukes the world during the course of the episode.

Clark then goes back in time to the day Krypton exploded, and travels to Krypton in order to prevent Brainiac from killing Clark's infant self.

Then Krypton exploded.

It was wild! Just like a movie. It seemed to last as long, because it held your attention throughout the episode. Clark even got to meet a human named Clark Kent who took his place in the Kent household (where Clark's father was still alive).

I enjoyed when Clark met the alternate reality Lois Lane. Since she didn't have any preconceptions to get in the way, she decided Clark was worthy in a romantic sense. So that proves there's hope.

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Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

I watched all 3 Omen films recently on AMC, and I was somewhat disappointed by the third one. It could have been so much cooler, but it seemed kind of lame.

In the 2nd one, the Antichrist is a teen in military school just finding out that he's the son of the Devil. There's an awe and mystery about his powers, abilities, and the effect he'll have on mankind. He causes local havoc.

In "Final Conflict," the Antichrist is all grown up, and no longer allows the audience to be mystified by what he's all about. He comes right out and says that his only weakness is a set of daggers.

[Spoiler Alert]

In the 1st film, it was explained that the Antichrist must be killed by an entire set of daggers. Yet at the end of "Final Conflict," a single wound from a single dagger kills him. I don't buy that.

I would have liked to see him rise to power while solving all kinds of major world problems, and then begin to enact some of the prophecy, perhaps by installing chips or marks on everybody's right hand or forehead. Then everybody would suddenly realize that the Book of Revelations is coming true, and actions would be taken by humanity to stop him. This would be, I think, a terrific and interesting exploration of what could potentially happen in real life, if you believe in that sort of thing. It would also be neat to see how the Antichrist defended himself from major harm, and was finally defeated by Jesus.

Instead most of these ideas were barely touched upon, and a large portion of Final Conflict's action seemed "small-time."

Still, it did strike me as interesting that the Antichrist wanted to be President, and in preparation for that held interviews in which he began popularizing the concept of allowing our youth a greater hand in world affairs and in politics. He said adults treat the youth as inexperienced an naive, but young people should be allowed have their say. Of course that would serve him, because one of the ideas in the film was that older people were wise enough to recognize that something was wrong with him, and young people could not.

This seems to mirror what is apparently happening with Barack Obama, where he seeks out the youth vote.

Also, Damien (the Antichrist) was being compared with JFK by journalists in the movie. So is Obama.

But this is probably just coincidence.

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Challenges Of DVR: Too Little Space

In the future, the hard drives for Digital Video Recorders will hopefully be so huge that there are no problems with space.

But right now, one somewhat odd problem is that sometimes not enough TV is being watched. When you've got Ultimate Power in the DVR box, you say, "That movie looks good. That show looks good. I'll record them digitally, and watch them later."

Eventually you fill the tiny box with various programs, some HD and some not, and then realize that you're so close to 100% capacity that if you don't plunk yourself down for a 4 hour Boob Tube Marathon, you might miss out on some of the films and shows you took the time to save! They'd be deleted automatically to make room for new recordings and automatic series recordings.

So the new rule become, "You must watch at least 1 hour of television a day."

So much for the old school mentality that would rather opt to limit TV time.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Wow, I can't believe this film comes all the way from 1966! Man...

I love it. It was on a Spanish channel the other night, and then on AMC, so I watched a little in Spanish, and a lot in English.

It's interesting to see how different things were when the American infrastructure that we have today was just barely in its infancy in some southern and western areas. It's wild to think that guys made their way using their wits and their weapons.

I also liked the prospect of quick riches, and the music was great!

The Good Guy, the Bad Guy, and the Ugly Guy all seemed easy to identify with. Given their circumstances and immediate situations, it was clear why they acted the way they did.

I wonder what happened after the movie ended...

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Death Wish II (1982)

I had watched all 5 a couple of months ago, but last night I saw the end of the first one and all of the second. I noticed a few things...

I think in the first one, after his wife and daughter were messed with, Paul Kersey just went around killing every thug he saw. He'd lure them out and exterminate them.

But in the second one, he was highly focused on killing only the guys who did him wrong (by killing his housekeeper and daughter).

Now that I think about it, it's almost like Death Wish II was an alternate version of the first. "What would it have been like had he just gone after the main bad guys...?"

I don't remember if he got the exact ones who wronged his family in the first film. If he didn't, it makes sense to have a sequel in which he's all about direct revenge.

Laurence Fishburne (a.k.a. Laurence Fishburne III) was one of the thugs, and stuck out from the rest. Morpheus!

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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007)

This was on last night. I watched most of it. It was wild. I've seen the show before. The info for the program called it "surreal." I guess I've never thought about that aspect of the show. I just took it as natural.

That's probably because Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn't the weirdest show that's on during it's normal content block. On Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (at night), there are usually some pretty bizarre things to watch. ATHF is pretty cool compared to some of the sick stuff that's on.

What I like about it is it seems to represent success in a weird sort of way. What I mean is, we live in a country where you can build up so much success that you no longer have to play by the rules. Rich people can be eccentric, right? So oddball characters having adventures sometimes reminds me of how lucky we all are that we can afford non-functional things. Like if we lived in a Totalitarian society, we'd wear gray and be told what to eat, how much to exercise, what to do for work, and how to sit and stare at the wall during break. But since we've got freedom and live in a land of abundance, we can feel free to judge or take in off-the-wall humor. That to me is a pretty valuable thing.

The movie, I thought, was pretty entertaining. One of my favorite parts was how the overweight balding guy got strapped into a fitness machine which basically did the workout for him. He soon became more muscular than any human should become. He couldn't move, there was so much muscle mass! So I'll be he'll lie around for awhile, wait for the huge muscles to atrophy, and then get up and walk around when he's still buff enough to win Mr. Universe. No-effort reverse workout!

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